Pero Cold Pressed: Chicken with Grain review

Three constructions live under this one name and they sort themselves neatly. The four 80/20 recipes, where named meat runs from 70% to 76%, reach our Outstanding band bar the beef, which sits a step below in Excellent. The six sweet potato recipes and the two grain recipes settle in our Good band, exactly where the typical cold-pressed food lands. Even the gentler end of this range keeps perfectly normal company for the format. Meat share is what moves Pero up and down, and carbohydrate falls away in step with it. That runs from around half of dry matter on the grain recipes to a little over a tenth on the 80/20 four.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 36%, Wheat, Barley, Peas, Linseed, Cane Molasses, Beet Pulp, Chicken Oil, Chicken Gravy, Vitamins and Minerals, Lucerne, Prebiotic Inulin, Herbs Parsley, Chicory, Kelp, Peppermint, Basil, Fennel, Thyme, Aniseed, Yucca and Rosemary, Glucosamine 0.1%, Chondroitin Sulphate 0.05%

Cold pressing is the thing to understand before any single ingredient. The pellets are formed under pressure at far lower temperatures than baked kibble. In water they crumble where a baked pellet swells. That is much of why owners of fast eaters like the format. Pero presses all twelve recipes the same way and then varies what goes into them.

The 80/20 four are the meat-led end. Chicken tops the list at 76%, trout at 73%, and beef and duck at 70% apiece, each followed by a matching fat and by sweet potato at 8% as the only starch worth naming. Protein converts to between 53.6% and 56.3% of dry matter while carbohydrate stays between 10.8% and 13.9%, which is striking company for a cold-pressed food, where the typical recipe converts to 43.2%.

The six sweet potato recipes work the other way round. Carrying the recipe are sweet potato at 27% and potato at 20%. Named meat runs from 28% to 37%, with salmon protein at 5% shoring up the amino acids and whole egg at 5% adding a little more. Where the figures allow the conversion, carbohydrate lands between 44.7% and 52.3% of dry matter, which is ordinary for the format, with beet pulp and prebiotic inulin looking after the fibre.

The two grain recipes are the most cereal-led labels Pero prints. Beef at 37% or chicken at 36% leads, then wheat, barley, peas and linseed, with beet pulp behind them. Wheat is the grain a minority of dogs do better without, and naming it outright is the honest way to declare it. A vague cereals entry would hide it. Carbohydrate converts to 49.7% and 50.0% of dry matter. These two are also the only recipes in the range whose labels carry no fish at all.

The tail is where Pero shows its hand. A herbal blend at 0.25% runs through the range, taking in chicory root and parsley through to turmeric and aniseed. Ten recipes add glucosamine at 0.1%, collagen at 0.08%, green lipped mussel at 0.05% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.05%. The two grain recipes keep the glucosamine and chondroitin alone. Those figures are printed, and that counts for something even at small inclusions.

Liver gravy coats most of the range and cane molasses appears on nine of the twelve labels. The gravy is a palatability layer, the molasses helps bind the pellet and sweetens it a little, and it is a sugar, which is the only reason it is worth flagging at all. Neither is doing nutritional heavy lifting. Both are doing the job of getting the bowl emptied.

Chicken at 36% ahead of wheat, barley, peas and linseed, with chicken oil and chicken gravy behind them. It and its beef sibling are the two recipes here that keep fish off the label entirely. For a chicken-fed dog steering around fish, this is the obvious one to reach for. Carbohydrate converts to 50.0% of dry matter at an estimated 323 kcal per 100g.

Beef with Grain and Chicken with Grain are both £2.92 per kilo. Turkey Slim Down is £6.17. Beef & Sweet Potato, Chicken & Sweet Potato and Calm Down Dog are all £6.21. Lamb & Sweet Potato is £6.75, Salmon & Sweet Potato is £7.75, and the four 80/20 recipes are £8.33. Every recipe comes as a trial pack and in 2kg, 5kg and 12kg bags.

Take the standard maintenance estimate for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Fed across this range that lands at 215g to 261g depending on the recipe, and between £0.76 and £1.92 a day.