Sainsbury's Nature's Goodness Small Dog Dry review

This finishes in our Good band, and the reasons pull in both directions before settling. In its favour, carbohydrate converts to 41.9% of dry matter where the typical adult dry food runs at 46.2%, every animal entry is named, and the mineral doses are printed rather than implied. Holding it where it is, the 32% chicken declaration is respectable rather than commanding, and a third of that figure is fresh weight that leaves in the oven. Protein and processing reads Good with nutritional balance a step behind at Average, while transparency comes out Outstanding.

Energy comes in at 379 kcal per 100g against the 357 typical for an adult dry food. A small dog therefore reaches their daily allowance on a slightly smaller pile of kibble than usual.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (32%) (Chicken Meal 24%, Freshly Prepared Chicken 8%), Sweet Potato, Potato, Dried Peas (6%), Chicken Fat, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Gravy, Linseed (2%), Minerals, Yeast Products (0.2%, as a source of Prebiotic MOS), Dried Cranberry, Dried Blueberry, Marigold Flower, Turmeric, Dried Spearmint. Natural ingredients

Chicken is declared at 32% and the split is printed alongside it: 24% chicken meal and 8% freshly prepared chicken. That split is the useful part. Most of fresh chicken is water, and the oven takes that away, so it is the 24% of already dried meal that genuinely carries protein into the finished kibble. The analysis follows suit, with protein converting to 28.8% of dry matter and fat to 16.8%, a steady everyday profile and not a performance one.

The binding is done by sweet potato and potato, with dried peas at 6% next along, and no wheat, maize, rice or barley appears anywhere. Carbohydrate works out at 41.9% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical for an adult dry food. The plant side is present without taking over the bowl.

The part worth pausing on is what is absent. Chicken fat and chicken gravy both carry the species name. Nothing hides further down either, no fish oil, no unnamed animal fat, no hydrolysed protein. That makes this a genuine one animal recipe, which is exactly what an owner needs when they are trying to confirm whether chicken suits their dog or not.

Linseed at 2% supplies the omega 3 in its plant form. A dog turns that into the skin-active forms more slowly than it takes them from a marine oil, so give a coat a few weeks to answer. Dried beet pulp is the fibre, a fair choice for digestive steadiness. Gut bacteria are what yeast products at 0.2% feed, and the label declares them as the prebiotic MOS. It is a feeder, not a nutrient in its own right.

Cranberry, blueberry, marigold flower, turmeric and dried spearmint bring up the rear, where quantities are small by definition. They are a flourish, and this food is not relying on them. The chicken and the low starch load are what it stands on.

Plenty of labels never print a mineral dose. This one does: zinc at 100 mg, iron at 60 mg, manganese at 50 mg, copper at 8 mg, iodine at 2.5 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg per kilo. The vitamins are dosed too, vitamin A at 17000 IU, vitamin D3 at 1500 IU and vitamin E at 70 mg. Those minerals are oxide and sulphate forms, the older route and a slightly less absorbable one, and the selenium is the selenite salt, not the yeast.

£3.45 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 222 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £0.76 a day. Scaled to a 5kg dog on the same energy estimate, that is nearer 87 to 107 grams a day. Portion by the waistline, not by a table.