Opti Life Adult Sterilised/Light: Medium & Maxi review

Both bags land in our Good band, and they get there the way the rest of the brand does. A dehydrated named meat comes first, percentages sit beside the meat, the rice and each fibre source, the mineral and vitamin panel is dosed line by line, and glucosamine is stated in milligrams. Our Good band is where the typical adult dry food comes to rest as well, so this pair sits level with the shelf around it. The trade that makes it a light diet also trims a little from our nutritional balance reading, because carbohydrate rises as fat falls. Protein and processing stays at Average, held there by an animal fat and a hydrolysed protein that name no species.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken (dehydrated, 27%), rice (27%), rice flour, vegetable fibres (cellulose 6%, beet pulp 1%), animal fat, linseed, hydrolysed animal proteins, minerals, salmon oil, brewer's yeast, dried whole eggs, FOS (0.1%), MOS (0.1%), sea algae (Ascophyllum nodosum), glucosamine 500 mg/kg, rosemary (15 mg/kg), green tea (10 mg/kg).

A light kibble is made by three moves, and all three are visible here. Fat drops to a declared 9.5% on the medium and maxi bag and 11.0% on the mini, and crude fibre rises to 4.0% and 3.8%. L-carnitine arrives at 40 mg per kilo, the entry usually chosen to help the body work with the fat it does have. Nothing is hidden in a proprietary blend.

Dehydrated chicken leads at 27% on the larger recipe and 31% on the mini, with rice matched to it at the same percentage each time. The water is gone from dehydrated meat before it goes on the scales, so the bag's figure is close to what the finished kibble holds. That is not how a fresh-meat headline behaves. Keeping the meat share up while pulling the fat down is the harder way to build a diet food, and it shows in a protein figure of 26.1% and 29.9% of dry matter.

Cellulose is the ingredient a light recipe leans on hardest, declared here at 6% on the larger bag and 4.5% on the mini, with beet pulp at 1% behind it in both. Being purified plant fibre, cellulose passes through a dog almost untouched. That is exactly why it is used: it fills the bowl and the stomach while contributing next to nothing in calories. Cellulose is processed, not fibre taken straight off a vegetable, and the label printing the percentage tells you how central it is.

The knock-on is in the carbohydrate. Fat comes out and fibre goes in, so starch takes a bigger share of what remains. Carbohydrate is estimated at 51.1% of dry matter on the medium and maxi recipe and 46.4% on the mini. That is the arithmetic of every light kibble rather than a quirk of this one, and it is why the portion on the bag matters more here than on a richer food.

Two entries give a family where a species belongs: animal fat, and hydrolysed animal proteins. On a recipe where fat is scarce the first of those is still doing real work. Around them the label is generous: linseed and salmon oil for the omega 3s, then brewer's yeast, sea algae and dried whole eggs. FOS and MOS come at 0.1% each, taurine at 1100 mg per kilo, and rosemary and green tea as the antioxidant preservatives.

The leaner of the two and the one written for medium and large dogs, with dehydrated chicken and rice both at 27% and cellulose pushed up to 6%. Fat is declared at 9.5%, a genuinely low figure for a complete adult kibble, with protein at 24.0% and energy at 365 kcal per 100g. Carbohydrate follows the fat down at 51.1% of dry matter, and it is sold in the largest bag only.

£4.54 a kilo for both. The mini comes in a 7.5kg bag and a smaller one, and the medium and maxi comes in the largest size alone.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 230 grams a day of the medium and maxi recipe or 224 grams of the mini. Assume around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.04 and £1.02 a day. The label's own table is deliberately tighter than that, asking 135 to 150 grams for a 15kg dog, because it is portioning for weight loss rather than maintenance. Follow the bag and the waistline while your dog is slimming.