Pro Plan Small & Mini Adult Sensitive Skin OptiDerma review

Good is what our scale gives this one, level with adult dry food in general. It is protein and processing, reading Average, that sets the level rather than anything in the analysis. Salmon at 20% is a proper named share, and the analysis is one of the meatier ones you will find on a cereal based kibble. Protein is 32.6% of dry matter and carbohydrate 37.5%, well below the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. What pulls it down is that the animal fats, the digest and a fair stretch of the middle of the list say nothing about where they came from. Judge it on the salmon and the fats and it feeds a small dog well.

Ingredients, as declared: High quality salmon* (including head, bone, meat) (20%), Rice* (18%), Dried salmon protein*, Corn protein meal*, Corn*, Animal fats, Soya meal*, Dried beet pulp*, Corn starch, Minerals, Dried vegetable fiber, Soybean oil, Corn grits, Digest, Yeast*, Dried egg*, Fish oil

Salmon at 20% opens the label and the declaration is candid about what that includes, head, bone and meat. Fresh fish takes plenty of water into the oven and brings very little back out. Much of the finished kibble's fish protein therefore comes from the dried salmon protein sitting third. Between them they get the analysis to 30.0% protein as fed, or 32.6% of dry matter, which is a strong showing for a cereal based kibble.

Rice at 18% leads the plant side. Corn sits behind it in four forms: plain corn, corn starch, corn grits and corn protein meal. Corn protein meal is a refined plant protein that helps the headline protein figure along, so not all of that 30.0% arrived by way of the fish.

Three fats and a well specified mineral panel carry the skin and coat case. Soybean oil is a plant oil, free of soya proteins and therefore no trouble for a soya-sensitive dog. Closing the list, fish oil is the marine omega 3 source that a dull coat responds to. Zinc is dosed at 100 mg per kilo, vitamin E at 550 IU and vitamin C at 140 mg, which are exactly the entries you want named and numbered on a food sold for skin.

Yeast and dried egg near the end of the list are small but welcome additions. Egg is there for how easily a dog uses its protein, yeast for the difference it makes to how a bowl smells to a small, opinionated eater. Digest does the same job and, like the animal fats above it, names no creature at all.

Soya meal is the entry to weigh up. It is a practical protein and most dogs go their whole lives without noticing it. It turns up often enough in conversations about reactive dogs to be worth a look on a recipe carrying this name. Everything else on the list is either named or clearly labelled, which is why the salmon and the fats are the parts to judge it on.

Sold in a 3kg bag.

The label suggests 105 grams a day for a 5kg dog doing under an hour of exercise, rising to 165 grams at 10kg and dropping to 35 grams for a 1kg dog. Start in the middle of the band your dog sits in and let the waistline do the arguing after that.