Optimum Pet Health Weight Control Adult review

Our scoring gives this the Good band, level with the middle of adult dry food, and it manages that while carrying the compromises every slimming recipe carries. Protein and processing reads Good, because the meat share holds up even with cellulose bulking the bag out. Nutritional balance reads Good, which is fat coming down and fibre going up doing precisely what they were asked to do.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (Of Which Fresh Chicken Meat 25% And Dried Chicken 18%) (43%), Dried Potato Flakes, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Green Peas, Cellulose (8%), Dried Beet Pulp (5%), Chicken Gravy (3%), Linseed, Chicken Fat (2%), Dried Antarctic Krill (1%), Fish Oil (1%), Minerals, 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, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate, Msm (Methylsulfonylmethane), Yucca Schidigera, Dried Melissa Officinalis, Dried Thymus Vulgaris, Dried Fenugreek, Olive Powder, Dried Rosehip, Tyndallized Lactobacillus Helveticus

Chicken is declared at 43%, printed as 25% fresh meat and 18% dried, with chicken gravy at 3% behind it. That matters more on a diet food than on any other kind, because protein is what a dog holds muscle with while the fat comes off. Here it converts to 29.7% of dry matter, which is a respectable level for a recipe with the calories reined in.

Fat is the lever that has been pulled. Chicken fat appears at only 2%, taking the total to 11.0% and dropping energy to an estimated 314 kcal per 100g. Fewer calories per gram is the whole trick of a weight-control kibble: the dog still gets a bowl that looks like dinner, and the sums still add up.

Fibre is the other lever, declared at 10.0%, and the label is honest about where it comes from. Cellulose at 8% is inert bulk, a fibre the dog cannot break down, which is exactly why it works for filling a stomach without adding energy. Of the two, dried beet pulp at 5% does more, because gut bacteria can ferment it. Between them they give the recipe a fibre level well above an ordinary adult food.

The starch comes from dried potato flakes, dried sweet potatoes and green peas. No cereal goes into the recipe. Carbohydrate is estimated at 39.5% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, so the calories have not simply been swapped from fat into starch.

Dried Antarctic krill at 1% and fish oil at 1% give the marine omega 3s, with linseed covering the plant form. Chicken is the recipe's only meat, and it supplies the fat and the gravy too. That keeps things simple for a dog that reacts to other animals, though those two marine entries mean fish is on the list.

Glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulphate and MSM appear towards the end with turmeric alongside, which is sensible company for a food aimed at dogs whose joints have been carrying extra weight. None of the three carries a printed dose. Read them as quiet support in the background, not as a measured intervention.

The prebiotic set is written out in full. Yeast cell wall at 1% brings MOS and beta glucans, dried chicory at 1% brings FOS and inulin, and galacto-oligosaccharides come in at 1%, with a tyndallized Lactobacillus at the close. Each trace mineral is dosed twice, as a sulphate and as an amino acid chelate. Zinc comes to 20 plus 30 mg, iron to 15 plus 30 mg, manganese to 30 plus 10 mg, copper to 10 plus 3 mg and iodine to 1.5 mg per kilo. Taurine is dosed as well, with vitamin E at 450 mg and vitamin C at 100 mg.

£3.47 a kilo, with a 2kg bag and a 15kg one on the shelf.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 268 grams a day, taken from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £0.93 a day. That gram figure is a maintenance one; a dog actively losing weight is fed below maintenance, so work from your vet's target rather than from the guide.