PitPat Light Dry review

Average is the band, and it comes from the ingredients side rather than from the analysis. Dried poultry protein leads at 30.0%, which is a strong opening, but it never says which bird, and pea flour in second place is doing protein work that meat would do better. Barley and two fibre entries follow. Measured against a typical adult dry food in our Good band, this label gives ground on naming and on plant protein, while nutritional balance reads Good.

What a general score cannot read is intent. This is a purpose-built lighter food, and if a dog needs to come down a little, the low fat, the high fibre and the dosed L-carnitine are all pointed the right way.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry protein (dried) 30.0%, pea flour, wholegrain barley, plant fibre, beet fibre, poultry protein (hydrolysed), poultry fat, carob (crushed), yeast (partially hydrolysed), minerals, psyllium husks, New Zealand green-lipped mussel meat (Perna canaliculus) (dried).

Dried poultry protein takes first place at 30.0%, which is the right shape for a light food. The water has already left dried meat, so what the label prints is close to what reaches the kibble. Poultry is the catch. Chicken, turkey, duck or goose: the word covers all four, and nothing further down the list narrows it.

Pea flour follows, milled from roasted peas and used here for the protein and fibre it brings. It is not a bad ingredient. Plant protein is less digestible than meat protein and less complete in its amino acids, so its position this high is the main reason the ingredients side reads modestly. Wholegrain barley comes next, a decent grain that cooks down digestibly and carries useful fibre of its own, though it does bring gluten with it if that matters in your house.

Fibre is the engine of a light food and there is plenty here. Plant fibre and beet fibre sit high on the list, psyllium husks lower down for the soluble kind, and the declared 7.0% converts to 7.6% of dry matter. Fibre fills a dog up without bringing much energy along with it, which is the whole trick behind feeding less without a dog feeling short-changed.

Where this label is strongest is the analysis. Protein is 29.0% as fed and 31.5% once the water is out, fat is held at 7.5%, and energy comes to 315.5 kcal per 100 grams where 357 is typical for adult dry food. High protein with low fat is exactly the combination you want while a dog is eating less, because it protects muscle while the weight comes off.

The dosed extras back the same plan. L-carnitine at 500 mg/kg has a hand in moving fat towards the cells that burn it, and it is a standard addition to weight recipes. Taurine is added at 1500 mg/kg and vitamin E runs to 400 mg/kg. Zinc and copper both arrive as glycine chelates, a step up from the plainer oxides. Right at the bottom sits New Zealand green-lipped mussel, dried, and it is the shellfish put in with joints in mind. For a dog whose weight has been asking a lot of them, that is a sensible thought.

No moisture figure is declared, so the dry matter column here assumes the 8% a kibble usually carries.

£5.88 a kilo, in 4.25kg bags bought one at a time or three at a time.

A 15kg adult in moderate condition would eat around 266 grams a day here, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which is roughly £1.57 a day. A dog on a reducing plan eats less than that by design, so take your vet's target over the maintenance figure.