Pooch & Mutt Superfoods Small Adult Dry Food review

Shrinking a kibble is easy. Keeping the recipe honest while you do it is the harder half, and this one manages both. It reads Good on our scale, the same band the middle of the dry adult shelf occupies. A dried meat lead, a carbohydrate share slightly under the dry adult typical and a label that prints its percentages are what carry it there. Protein and processing and nutritional balance each read Good, transparency reads Outstanding, and nothing in the file is doing anything clever to flatter the result.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Protein (30 %), Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes (17 %), Chicken Fat (6 %), Chickpeas (6 %), Hydrolysed Chicken Liver (4 %), Dried Pumpkin (4 %), Dried Apple Pulp (4 %), Linseed (2 %), Salmon Oil (2 %), Hydrolysed Yeasts (1 % - a source of inositol and amino acids), Carrots (0.4 %), Potassium Chloride (0.4 %), Microalgae Oil (0.3 %), Dried Chamomile (0.2 %), Dried Cranberries (0.2 %), Dried Seaweed (0.2 %), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.15 %), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.1 %), Glucosamine (0.1 %), Dried Blackcurrant (0.05 %), Dried Spinach (0.05 %), Dried Rosehips (0.05 %), Dried Pomegranate (0.05 %), Dried Kale (0.05 %), Mojave Yucca (0.01 %).

The kibble is small, the recipe is not. Chicken protein leads at 30% in its dried form, which is the version worth having: a fresh meat percentage shrinks in the oven, a dried one does not. Protein comes out at 30.0% of dry matter with fat at 13.3%, comfortable figures for a small dog with an ordinary daily routine.

Behind the meat, potatoes take second place without a figure attached, sweet potatoes are declared at 17% and chickpeas at 6%. Sweet potato earns its place for the fibre and vitamin A it brings along with the starch. Estimated carbohydrate converts to 46.0% of dry matter, a touch under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. No grain appears in the bag at all.

Energy sits at 360 kcal per 100 grams, close to the 357 typical for a dry adult food, and that matters more in a little dog than a big one. A few extra grams in a terrier's bowl is a far larger overfeed than the same spoonful in a labrador's, so weigh the portion out.

Fat comes from chicken fat at 6%, named to its species and not left as a generic animal fat. Linseed at 2% and salmon oil at 2% bring omega 3, with microalgae oil at 0.3% adding a grown marine source on top. Hydrolysed chicken liver at 4% keeps the flavour up, which small breeds with strong opinions about dinner tend to appreciate.

The superfood tail is honest about its own scale. Dried pumpkin and apple pulp are declared at 4% each and do real work. Chamomile, cranberries and seaweed at 0.2%, and the run of berries and greens at 0.05%, are garnish. In between sit the prebiotics: mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.15%, then fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.1%, small but purposeful, and they feed the gut bacteria you want to keep on side.

£5.20 a kilo. Bags come in 1.5kg and 7.5kg.

For a standard 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, feeding works out at roughly 233 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.21 a day. Most dogs on this particular bag are a good deal smaller, and the label asks 100 to 170 grams a day for a dog between 5kg and 10kg.