Nood Dry Healthy Weight: Cage-Free Chicken review

This one finishes in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, and it earns that place by restraint rather than by richness. Fat is kept to 12.1% of dry matter, crude fibre lifted to 4.9%, and carbohydrate comes out at 45.3% of dry matter, just under the 46.2% that is typical for a dry food. L-carnitine at 200 mg per kilo, a fully dosed trace mineral panel and a declared gut culture do the rest. A weight recipe is judged on whether it takes energy out without taking the goodness with it, and this one manages that.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (16%), Dehydrated Pork Protein, Maize, Barley, Whole Peas (10%), Split Peas, Hydrolyzed Poultry Protein, Dried Beet Pulp, Pork Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Salmon Oil (0.5%), Dried Chicory Root (a natural source of FOS and Inulin), Cellulose, Linseed (0.25%), Dried Brewer's Yeast, Blueberry (0.01%), Sweet Potato (0.01%), Carrot (0.01%), Spinach (0.01%), Green Peas (0.01%), Apple (0.01%), Turmeric (0.01%), Althea, Peppermint (0.01%), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate. Additives (per kg): Vitamins: Vitamin A 3a672a: 15000 IU, Vitamin D3 3a671: 1500 IU, Vitamin E 3a700: 101 mg, L-Carnitine (3a910): 200 mg. Trace Elements: Iron (Iron sulphate monohydrate) 3b103: 50 mg, Iodine (Calcium iodate anhydrous) 3b202: 1.5 mg, Copper (Copper sulphate pentahydrate) 3b405: 10.0 mg, Manganese (Manganese sulphate monohydrate) 3b503:10.0 mg, Zinc (Zinc sulphate monohydrate) 3b605: 62.5 mg, Selenium (Sodium selenite) 3b801: 0.20 mg. Binders: Sepiolite 350 mg. Gut Flora Stabilizer: Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 109 cfu. Antioxidants: (Natural) tocopherol extracts from vegetable oil.

Fresh chicken leads at 16%. Fresh means the entry is mostly water, and the water goes in the oven. The protein that reaches the bowl comes mainly from the dehydrated pork protein behind it, with hydrolysed poultry protein further down. Pork deserves a mention of its own. Hardly any British dog food uses it, so plenty of dogs have never eaten it.

The cereals here are maize and barley. Whole peas come in at 10%, with split peas following. The peas add starch, and with it a useful amount of fibre plus a little plant protein. That suits a recipe trying to keep a dog satisfied on fewer calories.

The weight-management thinking is easy to trace. Fat is declared at 11%, which brings the energy down to 342 kcal per 100g. Cellulose is added purely as bulk, since a dog cannot digest it and it therefore carries no energy at all. It works alongside dried beet pulp and dried chicory root, which supplies inulin and FOS. L-carnitine at 200 mg per kilo is the amino acid used to help the body move fat into the furnace, which is why weight recipes so often carry it.

The fat source is pork fat, preserved with mixed tocopherols and no synthetic antioxidant. Salmon oil at 0.5% and linseed at 0.25% supply the omega 3. Dried brewer's yeast adds B vitamins, and Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 is declared as a live gut flora stabiliser.

Everything on the additives panel carries a figure. Zinc is at 62.5 mg, iron at 50 mg, copper and manganese at 10.0 mg each, iodine at 1.5 mg and selenium at 0.20 mg per kilo, all in sulphate form. The joint entries are the exception, with glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate listed at the end without doses. The fruit and vegetable tail, from blueberry to peppermint, is declared at 0.01% each, and it is decoration more than nutrition.

Sold in 1.42kg and 3kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 245 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label asks 226 to 380 grams for a dog between 10kg and 19kg. On a weight recipe the honest answer is to feed for the dog you want, not the dog you have.