Pero High Meat & Gluten Free: Chicken & Rice review

The chicken recipe and the lamb both land in our Good band with barely anything between them, and the middle of the adult dry category settles in the same place. Details rather than design separate them: the chicken declares a little more protein and a lower ash figure, while the lamb carries more mineral content and no calcium declaration at all. Both are built the same way from the same parts, so pick the animal your dog does better on and treat the small distance between them as noise.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 37% (Poultry Meal 28%, Fresh Chicken 9%), Whole Brown Rice 37%, Potato Flakes, Beet Pulp, Chicken Oil 5%, Yeasts, Chicken Gravy 2%, Yeast Extract, Peas, Minerals, Malt Extracts, Krill 3730mg/kg, Glucosamine 150mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 75mg/kg, Yucca Extract, Cranberry Extract

Both recipes put the named animal first and print the split: 28% poultry meal with 9% fresh chicken in one, 27% lamb meal with 9% fresh lamb in the other. For a kibble that is the sensible way round. Fresh meat is mostly water that the oven drives off, while meal goes in already dry. In the chicken protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter, and in the lamb to 26.1%.

Rice is the grain in both, at 37% whole brown rice in the chicken and 35% whole rice in the lamb. Being whole, it holds on to its bran and micronutrients. Rice carries no gluten, which is what the range name is about. Behind it beet pulp brings fermentable fibre, and that is what keeps a stool firm. In the chicken, estimated carbohydrate lands at 50.5% of dry matter, and in the lamb at 47.9%, against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food.

The joint pair comes with numbers attached: glucosamine at 150 mg and chondroitin sulphate at 75 mg per kilo in each recipe. Neither is left as a front-of-bag claim. Krill sits alongside them at 3730 mg per kilo as the marine omega source. Krill is a genuinely useful inclusion. It is also why neither recipe can be called fish free.

The chicken recipe rewards a close read on naming. Its 37% chicken headline is 28% poultry meal plus 9% fresh chicken, and poultry can be chicken, turkey, duck or goose, so the larger share of that figure is not tied to a species. Chicken oil at 5% and chicken gravy at 2% are named properly. The lamb recipe has no such gap, with lamb meal, fresh lamb and lamb fat at 6.5% all coming from the one animal.

Zinc arrives twice, as an amino acid chelate at 233 mg and as the sulphate at 68 mg per kilo. The chelated share is the one a dog's gut absorbs more readily. Iron at 93 mg, manganese at 55 mg and copper at 14 mg finish the trace panel in both recipes. Cranberry and yucca extract close each list at trace level. They are the label's flourish.

Chicken at 37%, made up of 28% poultry meal and 9% fresh chicken, on 37% whole brown rice with potato flakes and peas behind it. Chicken oil at 5% supplies the fat and chicken gravy at 2% the flavour. Of the pair it declares the higher protein, at 25%, and the lower ash at 6.5%. Calcium works out at 1.99% of dry matter, and seniors are named on the label alongside adults.

The chicken is £4.00 a kilo and the lamb £4.25, both sold as a trial pack, a 2kg bag or a 12kg bag.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, take about 840 kcal a day as the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The chicken comes to roughly 238 grams and £0.95 a day, the lamb to roughly 247 grams and £1.05. The bag's table spans 150 to 310 grams for dogs from 10kg to 20kg, which brackets both of those figures comfortably.