Skinner's Field & Trial Maintenance Plus review

This one comes out in our Average band, a step under the Good band the typical adult dry food manages, and the arithmetic behind that is not subtle. Cereal fills most of the recipe, estimated carbohydrate reaches 59.5% of dry matter against a typical 46.2%, and the animal share is both modest and unnamed beyond the word poultry. Read that as a description of what the food is rather than as a warning about it. This is a low-key maintenance ration with a joint extra built in, made for a kennel yard. Put a steady dog on familiar food in front of it and it delivers.

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, Wheat, Poultry meat meal, Barley, Poultry fat, Beet pulp, Vitamins & minerals, Joint aid supplement

The composition runs to eight entries and the first two are cereals. Maize provides most of the energy and cooks into a kibble that the majority of dogs digest easily. Wheat sits behind it, a workhorse binder that has also collected a reputation, since it appears more than any other grain in the stories of dogs that turn out to be intolerant of something.

Poultry meat meal is the animal in the recipe and it comes third. Dried and rendered before it ever goes in, it delivers protein at a much higher concentration than a fresh meat would at the same percentage, so third place understates it a little. It never says which bird, and the poultry fat that follows says no more.

The joint aid supplement is what separates this bag from the brand's plainer maintenance recipe. It appears as a single line with no breakdown, so the individual joint ingredients and their doses are not on show, which is a pity on a label that is otherwise so easy to read. Take it as a real addition from a maker that quantifies its joint entries openly elsewhere, and judge it on how your dog moves after a few months of it.

On a dry matter basis, protein reads 19.6% and fat 12.0%, with estimated carbohydrate at 59.5%. Energy is estimated at 348 kcal per 100g against 357 for the typical adult dry food. Barley and beet pulp handle the fibre. The vitamin and trace element panel is fully quantified, with zinc as the oxide at 90mg per kilo. Selenium comes as sodium selenite. Of the two forms a complete food may use, that is the plainer.

£2.71 a kilo, sold in 2.5kg and 15kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 241 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £0.65 a day. The bag's own table starts at 150 grams for dogs up to 10kg and runs to 260 grams at 20kg, written around a dog in work.