Skinner's Field & Trial Muesli Mix review

The Average band is where our scoring leaves this one, a rung under the Good band that the typical adult dry food reaches. Almost all of the gap comes from wording. Meat and bone meal names no species, oils and fats names neither an animal nor a plant, and glucose syrup adds a sugar the recipe does not need. Protein then finishes at 22.8% of dry matter, gentle for a kibble, and carbohydrate sits above the norm for the category. What the reading cannot show is that this is a long-serving feed with a settled following in kennels and on farms. For a steady adult dog with a hearty appetite it does exactly what it has always done.

Ingredients, as declared: Cooked wheat, Meat & bone meal, Cooked maize, Glucose syrup, Fish meal, Oils & fats, Minerals & vitamins, Cooked peas

Cooked wheat and cooked maize give the mix its body, with cooked peas closing the list well behind them. Wheat is a workhorse cereal that binds a biscuit beautifully. Among cereals, no name comes up more often on an intolerance list than wheat. Keep it in mind if you have had trouble of that kind before. Peas at the tail end bring a little fibre and plant protein along with them.

The animal side arrives in two parts. Meat and bone meal is a rendered, dried meal that concentrates protein and carries natural calcium and phosphorus with it, and it is nutritionally sound as far as it goes. The name is the limitation, since it covers any animal. Tracking down a problem meat needs more than this label gives. Fish meal behind it is the more informative of the pair. It is a dried and ground meal, and with so little water left in it, amino acids and minerals pack into a small weight. The fish character of this mix comes from it.

Glucose syrup in fourth place is the entry most readers will pause on. Its work is on how the mix cooks and on its colour and taste. Feeding the dog is not part of that, and no dog has a dietary need for added sugar. The amount is limited by where it sits on the list, though it is fair enough to notice.

Oils and fats is as open a term as a label offers, naming neither the animal nor the plant it came from, so the origin of the fat stays unknown. Fat reads 9.8% of dry matter, which keeps the mix on the lean side of a working ration.

The added vitamins and trace elements are all dosed in print, with vitamin A at 16580iu, vitamin D3 at 2000iu and vitamin E at 173mg per kilo. Zinc leads the trace elements at 138mg, with manganese at 50mg behind it. Oxides and sulphates are the forms used here. A modern recipe tends to choose chelates, but this is the plainer road to the same minerals.

£1.90 a kilo. Bags come in 2.5kg and 15kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 249 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £0.47 a day. Skinner's own table asks 150 to 260 grams for a dog of that weight. Start there, and your dog's waistline will settle the rest.