My Pet Says Super Premium Adult: Chicken & Rice Cube review

The range divides neatly in two. The salmon and potato, the salmon with trout and the duck and potato lead on meat, while the chicken, lamb and turkey recipes sit behind them. All six come out in our Good band alongside the dry adult median. Meat is the dividing line: the three above declare 36% to 45% of the recipe as named animal, and the three below run 27% to 29% with rice, barley and oats making up the difference.

None of that makes the cereal recipes bad food. Their labels are just as plainly written, the meat is named in every case and the mineral panels are dosed in print. They are simply built to a more modest animal share. That is not the dividing line on nutritional balance, and a dog who thrives on rice will never notice it.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 29% (including Dried Chicken 26% & Chicken Fat 3%), Rice (26%), Barley, Oats, Beet Pulp (2%), Dried Fish, Brewers Yeast, Minerals, Vitamins, Yucca Extract (190 mg/kg). Vitamins: Vitamin A 14,400 IU, Vitamin D3 1,925 IU, Biotin 145 mcg. Trace Elements: Iron (Iron (II) Sulphate Monohydrate) 50 mg, Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate) 50 mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate) 35 mg, Copper (Copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate) 12 mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous) 1 mg.

Every label names its animal and prints the split, which is the first thing worth checking on any bag. The salmon with trout recipe declares 45% fish across six separate entries. Salmon and potato follows at 44%, duck at 36%, chicken at 29%, lamb at 28% and turkey at 27%. The chicken, lamb and turkey all lead with dried meat, and that figure is doing more than it looks. Water has already gone out of dried meat before it reaches the mixer. On this label 26% dried chicken puts far more protein in the bowl than 26% fresh would.

The plant side is where the six part company. Chicken, lamb and turkey are rice led with barley or oats behind them. The salmon and potato pairs 24% potato with oats and 13% maize, and the duck uses 31% potato with peas and no cereal at all. The salmon with trout splits 18% potato and 18% sweet potato, with pea starch behind them. Carbohydrate lands between 46.7% and 55.4% of dry matter across the range, against 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Fat is handled differently from recipe to recipe and it repays a read. The duck uses 7% duck fat and the chicken 3% chicken fat, each one taken from the animal the bag is named after. The lamb and the turkey take theirs from chicken fat. That is a perfectly good fat, though it does break the single animal reading for a dog kept off poultry. The two salmon recipes draw their fat from salmon oil at 6% and 2%, the marine source a coat takes up most readily.

Brewer's yeast turns up in the chicken, lamb and duck recipes, a genuinely useful inclusion that brings B vitamins and a full set of amino acids for very little space on a list. Yucca extract at 190 mg/kg appears in the chicken and lamb with household smells in mind, beet pulp does the fibre work almost throughout, and the salmon with trout adds lucerne and sunflower oil.

The skin recipe carries a blend the label calls Itch-Eeze, dosed at 2645 mg/kg. Printing the dose is more than most skin claims manage. The parts of the blend are never listed, and which of them does the work is left unsaid. What you can verify is the fish: 45% of the recipe from salmon and trout, with dried fish and salmon oil behind them. That alone is a sound starting point for a dog with a grumpy coat.

The mineral panels are printed to the milligram right across the range: iron at 50 mg, zinc at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg and iodine at 1 mg per kilo. Copper and selenium appear on some labels and not others. Calcium runs from 1.53% of dry matter in the salmon with trout up to 2.5% in the lamb, all of it adult territory.

Chicken at 29%, made up of 26% dried chicken and 3% chicken fat. Rice follows at 26%, with barley and oats behind it. Brewer's yeast and a small dried fish entry sit further down the list, the fish being worth noting in a household avoiding it. Protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter with fat at 8.7%, the leanest fat level of the six, and energy is 348 kcal per 100g.

Per kilo the turkey and rice is £3.67, the salmon and potato £3.70, the lamb and rice £3.97, the chicken and rice cube £4.42, the salmon with trout £4.90 and the duck and potato £5.00. Every recipe comes in a 12kg bag and a 15kg working dog bag. The duck, the chicken and the salmon and potato add a 24kg bag, and the salmon and potato and the turkey also come in a 30kg working dog bag.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works from roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Whichever recipe you choose, that is 237 to 243 grams a day, or between £0.88 and £1.20. Depending on the recipe, the labels ask between 130 and 270 grams a day for a 10kg to 20kg dog. Start with the table on your own bag, then let your dog's waistline settle the rest.