Pero Super Sensitive & Grain Free review

Our Average band is where this one settles, with the middle of the adult dry category a step above it in Good. What reads well is the single named meat protein, the printed MSM dose and a mineral panel built on organic selenium. What pulls the other way is the starch side, where tapioca at 26% with pea starch behind it contributes little beyond binding. Protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 50.0%, against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food. This one is written for the dog that reacts to the usual meats, and on that dog it delivers what it promises.

Ingredients, as declared: White Fish Meal 31%, Tapioca 26%, Pea Starch, Poultry Fat, Beet Pulp, Alfalfa, Fish Oil, Yeast Extract, Malt Extract, Minerals, Linseed, Prebiotic MOS, Prebiotic FOS, Ginger, Ginseng, Frankincense, Liquorice Root, Green Tea, Turmeric, Fenugreek Seed, Burdock Root, MSM (500mg/kg), L Carnitine 100mg

White fish meal at 31% is the whole of the meat protein. Meal is the concentrated form, already dry when it goes into the mix. Gram for gram it holds more protein than a fresh fish entry of the same size. White fish is also among the leaner animal proteins and one of the less commonly reacted to, which is the thinking behind the whole recipe. Protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter, modest for a kibble.

Tapioca at 26% is the main starch, with pea starch behind it. Both bind a grain-free kibble efficiently and neither brings much beyond starch, which is the trade you make for leaving cereal out altogether. Beet pulp and alfalfa carry the fibre, and estimated carbohydrate converts to 50.0% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food.

Poultry fat is the honest complication. Fat carries flavour and dogs answer to it, and this is a better named entry than the blanket oils and fats used elsewhere on the shelf, but poultry still leaves the bird open. If the whole reason you are here is to rule chicken out for a reacting dog, that one entry keeps the question open.

Nothing else on this label stands out like the botanical tail. It runs ginger, ginseng, frankincense, liquorice root, green tea, turmeric, fenugreek seed and burdock root. One tradition or another uses most of them for digestion or for calming inflammation. They all sit after the minerals, which places them at trace level. Read them as the label's character rather than as the reason the food works.

Fish oil and linseed cover omega 3s from the marine and plant sides, and MSM is printed at 500 mg per kilo with L-carnitine at 100 mg. The trace minerals are dosed with zinc at 100 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 20 mg and copper at 15 mg per kilo. Selenium arrives in its organic form in place of sodium selenite. Calcium converts to 2.03% of dry matter, on the higher side for an adult food but nothing to trouble a grown dog.

£4.85 a kilo, available as a trial pack, a 2kg bag and a 12kg bag.

Working from about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that is roughly 245 grams a day and £1.19. On the bag the same dog is offered anywhere from 150 to 310 grams, a broad window that expects you to adjust by eye.