My Pet Says Superfood 65 Adult: Scottish Salmon review

All six recipes finish in our Excellent band, a clear step above the Good band where a typical dry adult food comes to rest. The declared meat share is the main reason. Holding 65% on every bag pushes carbohydrate down to somewhere between 20.7% and 38.6% of dry matter, where the ordinary figure for a dry adult food is 46.2%, and it drags protein up with it. The six sit close enough together that flavour and tolerance, not the scoring, should decide which bag comes home.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Salmon (35% Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon, 23% Dried Salmon, 4% Salmon Oil & 3% Salmon Stock), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus, Tomato), Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Vitamins, Fructooligosaccharides (192 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (48 mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%). Vitamins: Vitamin A 15,000 IU, Vitamin D3 2,000 IU, Vitamin E 95 IU. Trace Elements: Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate) 50 mg, Iron (Iron (II) Sulphate Monohydrate) 50 mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate) 35 mg, Copper (Copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate) 12 mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous) 1 mg.

The 65% is assembled the same way on every bag: 35% freshly prepared meat, a dried share of between 22% and 25% behind it, then the animal's own fat and a gravy or stock. Most of fresh meat is water, and the oven removes it. What actually reaches the bowl is the dried share, and at these levels it is doing proper work. The analyses agree, with protein converting to between 29.9% and 44.0% of dry matter across the range.

Binding duty sits with sweet potato and beans. Beet pulp behind them supplies the fibre. Cereal appears nowhere in the range. Beans carry some plant protein themselves, worth remembering when you read a headline protein figure on any grain-free food.

The dried superfood blend that gives the range its name sits below the beet pulp on every list, so it seasons the recipe rather than carrying it. It changes with the meat, from carrot and cauliflower alongside the beef to dill and spinach alongside the salmon, and there is nothing wrong with any of it. The meat share is what this food stands on, and that is the right place for the weight.

Fructooligosaccharides at 192 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 48 mg/kg are printed with their doses, and both work on the bacteria a dog wants in the large intestine. Olive extract at 0.01% is an antioxidant at trace level, and the trace minerals come as the standard sulphate salts, each declared.

Joint support appears on one bag only, the beef, and the doses are printed: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 170 mg/kg each, chondroitin at 125 mg/kg.

Every recipe also carries an omega 3 supplement that is never tied to a source. It is a small entry in a big bag. It is also why no label here quite delivers a watertight one-animal claim, whichever animal the front of the pack names.

Salmon at 65%: 35% of it freshly prepared Scottish fish, then 23% dried, 4% as oil and 3% as stock. For a household that leaves land meats out, that salmon oil makes this the obvious bag, and its fibre is the lightest across the range at 2.7% of dry matter.

Per kilo, the beef, chicken and lamb are £5.62, the duck £5.79 and the salmon £5.83, with the turkey and pork at £5.90. Every flavour comes in 6kg, 12kg and 24kg bags, with a 15kg bag labelled for working dogs.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat between 216 and 233 grams a day depending on the recipe. That works from an estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance figure). That comes out at between £1.24 and £1.31 a day.