Red Mills Racer Plus review

This one lands in our Average band, a step below the Good band the typical adult dry food holds. The reasons are structural, and none of them is alarming. Maize opens the list and maize gluten returns further down to top up the protein figure, an easier route to a protein number than meat is. The poultry entries never name a bird. It is worth saying what the label gets right in return. Moisture is declared and not assumed, the cereals are named, and carbohydrate actually converts to 42.0% of dry matter, under the 46.2% a typical adult dry food carries. It was designed for a fit dog in work, and on that dog it does its job.

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, Dehydrated Poultry Meat, Wheat, Poultry Fat, Dehydrated Beef Meat, Maize Gluten, Beet Pulp, Fishmeal, Whole Linseed, Sodium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Chicory Inulin, Yeast Extract.

Maize is the first ingredient and wheat the third, so this is a cereal based kibble and it makes no secret of that. Maize is a reliable and digestible grain once cooked. Wheat is the one more often linked with sensitivity. Note it if your dog has run into trouble with grain before.

The animal protein arrives already concentrated. Dehydrated poultry meat and dehydrated beef meat go in dried, so they carry their declared weight through to the finished kibble and lose none of it in the oven. Protein converts to 30.0% of dry matter and fat to 16.7%, a sensible pairing for a dog that is out working, not resting.

If one entry could go, it would be the maize gluten. Maize processing throws it off as a by product, put in to lift a protein figure. Meat protein does more for a dog than plant protein does. At least it sits sixth on the list here, behind both of the meats rather than in front of them.

Beet pulp gives steady fibre and whole linseed brings plant omega 3. Chicory inulin is a prebiotic, and the gut's own bacteria feed on it. Yeast extract sits at the end for palatability. None of that is window dressing. They are the quiet, useful entries that make a plain recipe work.

Oxides and sulphates are the forms the trace minerals take, not chelates, and a dog generally takes those up less readily. Selenium is supplied as sodium selenite. The additive panel names each one but prints no amounts, so there is no dosage here to read.

£1.24 a kilo, sold in a 15kg bag and in a pack of six of those bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 237 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly £0.29 a day, and a dog in hard work will want rather more than one resting between seasons.