My Pet Says Super Premium Small Breed Adult: Salmon & Potato review

The two varieties finish alongside each other. Both reach our Good band, the level most dry adult foods reach, so the interesting differences are the ones on the ingredient list. Neither reads as a thin recipe, and the gap between them comes down to two things: how much animal each one declares, and how much of the bag the starch is asked to fill. Pick by the dog, not by the gap.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 44% (Including Freshly Prepared Salmon 23%, Dried Salmon 13%, Salmon Oil 6% & Salmon Gravy 2%), Potato (24%), Oats, Maize, Beet Pulp (4%), Minerals, Vitamins. 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, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous) 1 mg.

The chicken recipe declares 29% chicken, and the split is printed: 26% dried chicken with 3% chicken fat. The water is already out of dried meat, so a 26% dried share puts a meaningful amount of protein into the finished kibble. The analysis lands at 26.1% of dry matter. Rice at 29% leads the plant side. Barley and oats sit behind it, and beet pulp at 2% brings the fibre.

The salmon recipe is put together differently. Its 44% salmon is printed in four parts: 23% freshly prepared, 13% dried, 6% oil and 2% gravy, all of it salmon. Fresh fish is largely water, and most of it leaves in the oven. The 13% dried share sits lower on the list than its contribution deserves. The salmon oil is a real omega source in its own right.

Potato at 24% replaces the rice on the salmon side, with oats and maize behind it and beet pulp at 4%. Maize is a perfectly digestible cereal once cooked, and it is only worth a second thought in a household that has already identified it as a trigger.

Everything animal in the salmon bag is salmon, which is unusual and useful. There is no unnamed fat, no separate omega supplement and no second species hiding in the small print. For a small dog on a narrowed diet, that makes it the more straightforward of the pair to reason about.

Both labels print their vitamins and trace elements in full, with vitamin A at 14,400 IU, vitamin D3 at 1,925 IU and biotin at 145 mcg, and the minerals arriving as sulphates rather than chelates. The chicken recipe adds yucca extract at 190 mg/kg, a plant extract used to take the edge off household odours, and brewer's yeast for its B vitamins and its appeal to a fussy eater.

Salmon at 44%: 23% of it freshly prepared, 13% dried, 6% as oil and 2% as gravy. Potato at 24% stands in for the rice, with oats and maize behind it. Fat runs to 11.0% and energy to 357 kcal per 100g. No animal but salmon appears anywhere on the list.

The chicken recipe is £4.00 a kilo and the salmon £4.83, both sold in 12kg and 15kg bags.

Working from roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), a 15kg adult in moderate condition would take about 243 grams a day of the chicken, at £0.97. The same dog on the salmon takes about 235 grams, at £1.14. These are small breed recipes, so most dogs eating them sit well under that reference weight; the labels' own tables start at 1kg and finish with a band for dogs of 10kg and over.