Scrumbles Adult & Senior Turkey review

This food lands in our Excellent band, one band up from the Good band the typical adult dry food reaches. Half the recipe being turkey is the main reason, and the carbohydrate estimate helps as well, since 40.8% of dry matter sits under the 46.2% typical of an adult dry food. The supporting cast is plain, and that is what stops it going further. A digest entry names no source, and the mineral and fibre list is solid without being remarkable.

Ingredients, as declared: 50% Turkey (26% Freshly Prepared Turkey, 20% Dehydrated Turkey, 4% Turkey Fat) Sweet Potato, Peas, Beet Pulp, Vegetable Digest, 1% Whole Linseed, Vitamins & Minerals, 0.1% Yeasts (source of prebiotic MOS), 0.1% Chicory Extract (source of prebiotic FOS), 0.02% Extract of Yucca Schidigera,0.02% Glucosamine, 0.015% Chondroitin, Dried Spearmint.

Turkey at half the recipe is the headline, and the label does the breakdown: 26% freshly prepared, 20% dehydrated and 4% turkey fat. Most of fresh meat is water until the oven gets to it, so the dehydrated fifth is the part that truly reaches the bowl. A 20% share is a serious one by any standard. Protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter and fat to 15.2%, a bowl with genuine substance to it.

Sweet potato heads the plant side with peas behind and beet pulp in support, and no grain features at any point. Carbohydrate works out at 40.8% of dry matter, under the 46.2% a typical adult dry food carries, so the meat is doing the heavy lifting rather than the starch.

A careful reader will stop on the vegetable digest. Digests are palatants, sprayed on so the kibble is worth eating, and this one is described by its origin rather than named outright. It does its job without a dog ever noticing, but it is the single place where the label stops short of full detail.

Joint support is present and quantified, if lightly, with glucosamine at 0.02% and chondroitin at 0.015%. No bowl of food is a treatment plan, and an arthritic dog still needs a vet, but a printed figure tells you far more than a front-of-bag claim.

The gut gets attention out of proportion to its billing. Chicory extract and yeasts at 0.1% each supply FOS and MOS, the prebiotic fibres that feed a dog's friendly bacteria, and the additive panel carries a live Enterococcus faecium culture. Whole linseed at 1% brings the plant omega 3s, and every added trace mineral is dosed, with manganese and copper in chelated form and a little selenium arriving from selenised yeast.

£4.83 a kilo, in 2kg, 7.5kg, 12kg, 15kg and 24kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat roughly 229 grams a day on this recipe, taking about 840 kcal a day as the basis (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.11 a day. For a dog of 10kg to 20kg the bag's own guide is 170 to 286 grams. Let the waistline break the tie.