Optimum Pet Health Adult Small Breeds review

Our Excellent band takes this one, a step above where most adult dry food sits. The meat is the strongest thing about the recipe, and nutritional balance reads Excellent behind it. Protein and processing sits at Good, with potato flakes and sweet potatoes still holding the next two places on the list. Transparency reads Outstanding, since the meat split, the fat share and every working extra are printed rather than implied.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (Of Which Fresh Chicken Meat 25% And Dried Chicken 25%) (50%), Dried Potato Flakes, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Green Peas, Chicken Fat (10%), Chicken Gravy (3%), Dried Beet Pulp, Linseed, Fish Oil (2%), Dried Antarctic Krill (1%), Minerals (Of Which Sodium Hexametaphosphate, 0.3%), Carob Flour, Dried Brewers Yeast, Dried Chicory ( A Natural Source Of Fos And Inulin) (1%), Yeast Cell Wall (A Natural Source Of Mos And Beta Glucans) (1%), Gos (Galacto Oligosaccharides) (1%), Dried Curcuma Longa, Ascophyllum Nodosum, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate, Msm (Methylsulfonylmethane), Yucca Schidigera, Dried Melissa Officinalis, Dried Thymus Vulgaris, Dried Fenugreek, Olive Powder, Dried Rosehip, Tyndallized Lactobacillus Helveticus

Chicken at 50% is declared as 25% fresh and 25% dried, and the even split is the interesting part. The dried half has already lost its water, so a full quarter of the recipe by weight arrives as concentrated meat, while the fresh quarter adds flavour on top. Protein lands at 35.2% of dry matter, comfortably above what a dry food usually manages. Chicken gravy at 3% tops the bird up a little further.

Chicken fat at 10% takes the total to 20.0% and energy to 380 kcal per 100g, that last figure being our estimate, not a label declaration. Small dogs generally handle a rich bowl well, and the practical consequence is simply that the portions look tiny.

With meat and fat taking so much of the recipe, the starch has less room to work with. Dried sweet potatoes, green peas and dried potato flakes lead the plant side, with carob flour and beet pulp behind them. The lot adds up to an estimated 30.7% of dry matter as carbohydrate, against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Fish oil is declared at 2%, a solid share for a supporting ingredient, with dried Antarctic krill at 1% alongside it, so the marine omega 3s are well represented. Linseed adds the plant form. Chicken is still the only meat on the list. A dog that reacts to other proteins gets a simple picture here, but those marine entries are real and this is not a fish-free recipe.

Glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulphate and MSM appear late on the list, in the company of turmeric, and none of them is given a printed dose. Take them as a gesture towards small joints under a long life rather than as a measured intervention.

Sodium hexametaphosphate is declared at 0.3% inside the mineral entry, which is a useful detail on a small-breed food, since little mouths are where dental trouble tends to start. It works by tying up the calcium in saliva so that plaque struggles to harden. Dried chicory at 1%, yeast cell wall at 1% and galacto-oligosaccharides at 1% look after the gut, with a tyndallized Lactobacillus and a short botanical tail closing the label.

The added trace minerals arrive as a pair each time, one sulphate and one amino acid chelate. Both are dosed: zinc at 20 plus 30 mg, iron at 15 plus 30 mg, manganese at 30 plus 10 mg and copper at 10 plus 3 mg per kilo, with iodine at 1.5 mg. Chelates are usually the more absorbable form. Taurine is dosed too, and vitamin E arrives at 450 mg with vitamin C at 100 mg.

£5.00 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 221 grams a day, taken from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.11 a day. Most dogs eating this kibble will be a good deal lighter than that reference dog, so scale the figure to your own.