Nature's Variety Selected Adult Mini: Free Range Chicken review

All three recipes finish in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food. The meat position does most of that work, and the analysis backs it up: protein converts to 31.5% of dry matter in the chicken and the salmon and 34.8% in the turkey. Carbohydrate lands between 34.8% and 38.0% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

What keeps the range in that band rather than higher is what the animal entries leave unnamed. The fat is listed only as poultry, so no species is named, and the hydrolysed protein entry covers three animals at once. A reader who wants to know exactly which bird is in the bag cannot get there from the label alone.

Ingredients, as declared: Deboned Free Range Chicken meat* (20%), dried chicken protein (19%), dried peas* (17%), dried potato* (13%), poultry fat* (7%), hydrolysed animal proteins (poultry, pork, fish) (4%), sweet potato* (4%), dried turkey protein (3%), beet pulp*, pea starch*, minerals, dried carrot* (0.5% equivalent to 4% of fresh carrot), dried apple* (0.3% equivalent to 2% fresh apple), dried seaweed (kelp)* (0.01%), dried rosemary* (0.01%). *Natural ingredients

Every recipe opens with a named deboned meat at 20% and puts a dried protein straight behind it at 19%. That order matters more than it looks. Water makes up most of a deboned fresh meat and the oven takes it away. The dried entry is the one carrying much of the protein that actually reaches the bowl. At 19% it is sized to do exactly that, and the finished protein reads 31.5% of dry matter in the chicken and the salmon and 34.8% in the turkey.

The binding comes from dried peas, dried potato and sweet potato, with pea starch and beet pulp behind them. Cereal is absent from the whole range. Beet pulp earns its place as a fibre source, the entry behind a small dog's firm, tidy stool.

Hydrolysed animal proteins is the line that deserves a careful read. The declaration covers poultry, pork and fish together, at 4% in the chicken and the salmon and 2.5% in the turkey. Hydrolysing breaks protein into fragments small enough to be gentle on a touchy gut, and it makes the kibble taste good, which is exactly why a mini food uses it. The trade is that it names three animal groups in one entry, so no recipe here can anchor a strict elimination trial.

The tail is small and sensible rather than showy. Dried carrot at 0.5% is the equivalent of 4% fresh carrot and dried apple at 0.3% the equivalent of 2% fresh, both there for fibre and antioxidants. Kelp and rosemary sit at 0.01% each, the kelp supplying iodine and the rosemary doing quiet antioxidant duty on the fats.

The vitamin and mineral panel is dosed in print, which is always the sign of a label with nothing to hide. Zinc reads 135 mg per kilo in the chicken and the salmon and 125 mg in the turkey. Iron follows at 86 mg, manganese at 40 mg, copper at 8.8 mg, iodine at 1.4 mg and selenium at 0.11 mg. Vitamin E is generous at 650 mg with vitamin C at 300 mg alongside it. The forms are sulphates, the plainer option next to chelates, and perfectly workmanlike.

Deboned free range chicken at 20% with dried chicken protein at 19% behind it, plus a small helping of dried turkey protein at 3%. Dried peas at 17% and dried potato at 13% do most of the binding, and carbohydrate converts to 38.0% of dry matter, the highest of the three. The label declares energy at 401 kcal per 100 grams, so that figure is not an estimate.

Per kilo, the turkey recipe is £9.73. The chicken comes in 1.5kg and 7kg bags, the salmon in 0.6kg, 1.5kg, 3kg and 7kg, and the turkey in 1.5kg.

As a guide, the turkey works out at roughly £2.24 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The chicken and the salmon feed the same dog on about 209 grams a day. A mini breed dog gets through a fraction of that. The label puts real numbers on it: 25 grams a day at 1kg, 55 grams at 3kg, 80 grams at 5kg and between 135 and 140 grams at 10kg. Let your dog's waistline set the portion.