Omni Adult review

Our protein and processing reading is built around named animal protein, and a recipe that has deliberately left animals out cannot collect those points. That is the whole reason this finishes in our Average band rather than up among the meat kibbles, and why protein and processing comes out Poor while nutritional balance reads Good and transparency Excellent. The typical adult dry food finishes a band higher, in our Good band. None of that says the food fails a dog. It says our scale and this recipe start from different premises. The parts of the label our scale reads without prejudice, the declared 30.0% protein and a vitamin and mineral panel dosed line by line, stand up perfectly well.

Ingredients, as declared: Potato Protein, Pea Starch, Hi-Pro Soya, Brown Rice, Dried Yeasts, Sweet Potato, Oats, Peas, Pea Protein, Carrot Flakes, Rapeseed Oil, Hydrolysed Vegetables, Lentils, Sunflower Oil, Minerals, Micro Algae, Blueberries, Cranberries, Pumpkin

The protein here is assembled, and no single ingredient brings it in whole. Potato protein leads, Hi-Pro soya sits third and pea protein follows, and those refined fractions are how a meat-free kibble reaches a declared 30.0%, or 33.0% of dry matter. They are honest ingredients doing a real job, but plant protein is less completely digested than meat protein, so the figure on the panel flatters the recipe a little.

The dosed methionine entry is the one that tells you the formulator knew this. Plant proteins run short on the sulphur-containing amino acids, and adding methionine back is exactly the correction a vegan recipe needs to make. Taurine at 1,500 mg and L-carnitine at 250 mg per kilo are the other two additions a meat-free diet cannot leave to chance, since both come mainly from meat in an ordinary bowl.

Brown rice, oats, sweet potato, peas and lentils carry the starch between them. Carbohydrate comes out at 43.0% as fed, or 47.2% of dry matter, close to the 46.2% typical of an adult dry food. Fat is the more unusual figure at 9.0%, which is modest for a kibble and part of why this reads as a food for a steady adult rather than a working one.

Rapeseed and sunflower oil supply the fats, and micro algae is the recipe's most interesting entry. Algae is where fish get their long-chain omega 3s in the first place, so a plant recipe can reach them without going near a fish. No percentage is given, and it sits low on the list.

Two entries are vaguer than the rest. Dried yeasts sit fifth and do protein and B vitamin work. Hydrolysed vegetables is a flavour entry that names no vegetable. The blueberries, cranberries and pumpkin at the end are trace-level flourishes. The trace minerals below them are dosed individually, with zinc arriving as both a sulphate at 70 mg and a glycine chelate at 50 mg per kilo.

£6.60 a kilo, in 2kg, 6kg and 10kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 253 grams a day, taking roughly 840 kcal a day as the target (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.67 a day. For dogs between 10kg and 25kg the label asks 155 to 315 grams. Pick between the two by your dog's waistline.