Pooch & Mutt Wellbeing Slim & Slender Dry Food review

Our reading for this one is Good, matching the middle of the dry adult shelf, and the recipe earns that in a straightforward way. Chicken names itself at every point it appears, the minor ingredients almost all carry percentages, and the transparency pillar reads Outstanding because of it. The weight side of the job is handled with fibre and a slightly lower calorie count rather than by stripping the fat out, and pea protein at 6% helps the protein figure along. This does what the front of the bag says. It is a food for a dog whose portions have to come down a little.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (25 %), Sweet Potato (22 %), Chicken Protein (16 %), Potatoes, Peas, Pea Protein (6 %), Dried Beet Pulp (6 %), Chicken Fat (2 %), Chicken Gravy (2 %), Linseed (2 %), Alfalfa (1.5 %), Psyllium Husk & Seeds (0.08 %), Dried Cranberries (0.04 %), Glucosamine (0.026 %), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.016 %), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.015 %), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.01 %), Mojave Yucca (0.01 %), Lactobacillus acidophilus HA-122 inactivated (15x109 cells/kg).

Every animal entry here is chicken, and each one says so: fresh chicken at 25%, chicken protein at 16%, chicken fat at 2% and chicken gravy at 2%. There is no generic animal fat and no second species tucked into the small print. That makes it a genuinely single animal recipe, useful when one meat must stay in and everything else out.

The slimming is done with fibre, and the fat is left where it is. Dried beet pulp at 6% leads that work, with psyllium husk and seeds at 0.08% and alfalfa at 1.5% behind it, lifting crude fibre to 5.0% of dry matter. Fibre fills a dog up without adding much energy, which is how the same sized bowl ends up carrying fewer calories at 348 kcal per 100 grams against the 357 typical. Fat itself converts to 13.3% of dry matter, an ordinary level, so the portion still has to come down for the weight to follow.

Fresh chicken at 25% is the headline, but most of its water goes in the oven. Chicken protein at 16% is quietly the bigger contributor to what your dog actually eats. Pea protein at 6% is the other name on the protein side, and it is fair to read plant protein as the lesser of the two, less complete and less digestible than meat. Protein works out at 27.8% of dry matter in total.

Starch comes from sweet potato at 22%, with potatoes and peas alongside, and no cereal appears at all. Estimated carbohydrate converts to 46.6% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food. The saving on this label is in calories, so if you were expecting a starch reduction this is worth knowing.

The finishing entries are the run this brand uses across its Wellbeing recipes. Glucosamine at 0.026% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.016% support joints that are carrying more than they should be. Linseed at 2% supplies omega 3 and cranberries appear at 0.04%. Two prebiotics follow, mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.015% and then fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.01%, and the list ends with an inactivated Lactobacillus acidophilus culture. Each carries a figure in print, and that is the part worth applauding.

£6.00 a kilo. The bags come in 2kg and 10kg.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, about 241 grams a day is the guide, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £1.45 a day. The label asks 175 to 350 grams for a dog of 10kg to 25kg, and a dog who is slimming should sit under that, with the target set by your vet.