Pro Plan Large Robust Adult OptiBalance review

Two figures do most of the explaining. Chicken is declared at 19%, and that is fresh weight, counted with the water still in it. Carbohydrate converts to 46.8% of dry matter, a whisker above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Add wheat, wheat middlings, wheat gluten and corn protein meal to the protein side of the recipe. The food settles into our Average band while the typical adult dry food holds the Good band above it.

What that reading does not capture is how steady the food is in practice. Every vitamin and mineral is dosed in print, energy is declared, and the feeding table runs all the way to a 90kg dog, which is more thought than a lot of big-breed bags put in.

Ingredients, as declared: High quality chicken (including back and chest) (19%), Rice (15%), Dried poultry protein, Wheat, Corn, Wheat middlings, Digest, Dried beet pulp, Soya meal, Wheat gluten, Animal fats, Corn protein meal, Fish oil, Minerals, Dried egg

Chicken at 19% opens the list with back and chest named, so you know it is frame meat and not fillet. Rice at 15% straight after it is the interesting part, because that share of a named, gentle cereal in second place is what gives this kibble its steady, unexciting character.

Dried poultry protein in third place is the concentrated protein that survives cooking. It is also the one entry that never says which bird. Wheat, corn and wheat middlings follow. Middlings are the bran and germ fraction left after flour milling, a by-product with modest nutrition and useful fibre, and a routine way of adding bulk to a kibble.

Protein converts to 29.3% of dry matter and fat to 13.0%, which for a big dog on ordinary exercise is a sensible balance and not a stingy one. Fibre at 2.5% comes mainly from dried beet pulp, the ingredient that keeps stools firm on a large dog eating a large volume, which any owner of a giant breed will tell you matters.

Fish oil sits towards the end as the omega 3 source, with dried egg last of all bringing a small amount of highly digestible protein. Midway down the list sits digest, the palatant that gives kibble its flavour, and it names no animal, as do the animal fats below it.

The micronutrient panel is printed line by line: zinc at 120 mg, iron at 130 mg, manganese at 50 mg and copper at 14 mg per kilo. Vitamin E comes in at 550 IU and vitamin D3 at 840 IU. Tocopherol extracts at 11 mg per kilo hold the fats steady, a natural preservative rather than a chemical one.

Sold in one size, a 14kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition would eat about 228 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). This bag is aimed a good deal higher than that. For under an hour of activity a day, the label asks 325 grams for a 25kg dog and 770 grams for a 90kg dog.