Pro Plan Veterinary Diets HA Small & Mini Dry review

Ingredients, as declared: Corn starch*, Hydrolysed soya protein, Minerals, Coconut oil, Sugar*, Digest, Soyabean oil, Cellulose, Animal fats, Fish oil, Monoglyceride, *purified carbohydrate sources, hydrolysed protein source

Corn starch and hydrolysed soya protein lead again, though this is not simply the standard bag pressed into a smaller shape. Digest appears here as a palatant coating, and animal fats are listed without naming the animal, both of which are worth reading twice in a food chosen to narrow down what a dog reacts to.

Fish oil follows further down, so fish enters through an oil even though no fish meat is declared. Sugar sits under the maker's purified carbohydrate marker, soyabean oil joins the coconut oil on the fat side, and cellulose supplies the bulk fibre.

Protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter and fat to 12.5%, with crude ash at 8.2%, crude fibre at 2.2% and the carbohydrate estimate at 51.0%. Energy is 346 kcal per 100g, and that one is a calculated figure rather than a number the label itself declares. A recipe assembled from purified starch and a broken-down protein reads oddly against everyday food, which is precisely what it has been built to do.

The dosed panel runs vitamin A at 37000 IU per kilo, D3 at 1000 and E at 350. Iron is there at 160 mg per kilo, iodine at 2.5, copper at 17, manganese at 60, zinc at 150 and selenium at 0.41.

The feeding table is scaled for small dogs and stops at 10kg, running from 40 grams a day at 1kg through 110 grams at 5kg to 175 grams at the top of the range. How long a dog stays on a diet like this, and at what portion, is your vet's instruction to give.

It comes in 1.4kg and 3.7kg bags, at £5.69 a kilo.