Nutrivet Instinct Adult: Energetic & Nutritional review

Two of the three come out in our Good band, level with the average adult dry bag, and the Energetic & Nutritional goes a step better in Excellent. The protein does most of the lifting, converting to between 42.4% and 46.7% of dry matter. Carbohydrate helps too, running from 19.5% up to 33.1% where the typical adult dry food sits at 46.2%. The label holds the range back from climbing higher, not the food. There are no percentages anywhere on the list, a couple of animal entries name no species, and the energy figure had to be estimated because the pack does not give one. Two of the three declare their moisture, and the third leaves it out, so its dry matter figures assume the standard 8%.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken, lamb, turkey, potato, peas, chicken oil and fat, salmon, dried whole egg, dried chicken, dried lamb, protein from dried peas, salmon oil, beetroot pulp, green beans, sweet potato, tomato, apple, alfalfa, chicory root, yeast, fennel leaf, cranberry, blackcurrant jelly, dried plasma proteins, poultry hydrolysate potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), taurine, fucus vesiculosus (bladderwrack) extract, ascophyllum nodosum (clubweed) extract, yucca schidigera extract, chondroitin sulphate, N-acetyl-glucosamine, L-carnitine tartrate, rosemary extract, green tea extract.

The animal block at the top is unusually long. Chicken, lamb and turkey open every list, salmon comes next, and dried whole egg, dried chicken and dried lamb follow behind them. Water is what separates them, since the fresh meats lose most of theirs in the oven and the dried ones do not. The dried chicken and dried lamb are quietly doing more of the work than their position suggests. With no percentage beside anything, the split between them is the one thing the label will not tell you.

Behind the meats sit potato and peas for starch, then dried pea protein. Pea protein lifts a protein declaration without any meat being involved, and a dog does less with a plant protein than with an animal one. Even on a recipe as meat-led as this, it is worth reading the panel with that in mind. Beetroot pulp, green beans, sweet potato and tomato fill in the plant side.

The long tail is where the range makes its case. FOS and MOS are two prebiotics working on the gut's friendly bacteria. Taurine is the amino acid usually chosen for the heart. Chondroitin sulphate and N-acetyl-glucosamine cover the joints, and yucca schidigera is there for stool odour. Bladderwrack and clubweed are seaweed extracts, and rosemary and green tea extracts finish the list as natural antioxidants. None of this is why the food scores where it does. Trace level is where all of it sits, which is normal.

Two entries stay unnamed and both are worth spotting. Poultry hydrolysate is a palatant, the thing that makes the kibble worth eating, and dried plasma proteins are a protein fraction rather than a cut of meat. Neither names a species, which is why the food cannot support a strict single-animal trial however well the top of the list reads.

All three recipes publish the same composition list. The difference between them is in the analysis. That is unusual and worth knowing: if you are choosing between the bags, you are choosing between protein and fat levels, not between recipes.

Energetic & Nutritional is the richest of the three at 42% protein and 21% fat, with estimated carbohydrate down at 19.5% of dry matter, the lowest in the range by some way. It declares 10% moisture on the label, so its figures need no assumption. If your dog empties the bowl and comes back looking for more, this is the bag.

Per kilo, Energetic & Nutritional is £4.31, Nutritive & Health is £6.01 and Balance is £6.14. All three are sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 217 and 232 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The cost runs from £0.94 to £1.40 a day, according to which bag you buy. Those energy figures are estimates themselves, so watch your dog's shape and adjust from there.