Pro Plan Medium Adult Everyday Nutrition review

Read the ingredients list in order and our reading explains itself: chicken at 20%, then wheat, then dried poultry protein, then corn. Named meat leads, but only just, and the entries doing the work behind it are cereal and a dried protein with no species attached. That places the food in our Average band, with the typical adult dry food a step above in our Good band.

The nutrition itself is unremarkable in the better sense of the word. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 43.9%, slightly under the 46.2% typical for the shelf, with moisture assumed at the usual 8% because the label leaves it out. This is a competent everyday food that keeps a medium dog in condition, and our band reflects the quality of the parts rather than the outcome in the bowl.

Ingredients, as declared: High quality chicken (including back and chest) (20%), Wheat, Dried poultry protein, Corn, Rice (9%), Animal fats, Dried beet pulp, Digest, Soya meal, Corn protein meal, Wheat gluten, Minerals, Dried egg, Fish oil

High quality chicken at 20% opens the list, with back and chest named so there is no mystery about which parts are meant. Fresh is the key word there: much of that 20% is water, and the kiln drives it off. Wheat in second place and dried poultry protein in third are what actually build the body of the kibble.

Further down sit wheat gluten and corn protein meal. Both are concentrated plant protein, and they lift the panel figure without adding meat. That is why protein converting to 28.3% of dry matter is a slightly flattering number: some of it comes from sources a dog uses less completely than the chicken at the top.

Animal fats sit sixth and carry most of the 17.4% of dry matter that fat reaches, but the label never says which animal they come from. Fish oil closes the list and supplies the omega 3. Dried egg just ahead of it adds a little very well digested protein.

Dried beet pulp is the fibre source behind a crude fibre figure of 2.0%, light but enough to keep stools firm, and digest is the palatant that gives a plain kibble its flavour. Soya meal sits between them, and it is another plant protein. None of the three is a headline ingredient and all three do their job quietly.

The added micronutrients come with doses printed. Zinc is at 140 mg, iron at 150 mg, manganese at 56 mg and copper at 16 mg per kilo, plus vitamin E at 550 IU and vitamin C at 140 mg. Tocopherol extracts at 38 mg per kilo keep the fats from turning, which is the natural way of doing it.

Sold in 3kg and 14kg bags.

Working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through about 216 grams a day. For the same dog under an hour of activity the label asks 220 grams. By the standards of feeding tables that is close agreement, and the waistline has very little to settle here.