Skinner's Skinners Get Out & Go Dry Everyday Energy review

Our Good band is where this recipe finishes, level with the typical bag of adult dry food, for reasons that are easy to point at. A dried meat meal heads the list, with nearly all of it named as chicken. No cereal goes in, so starch falls to sweet potato and potato, and every one of the long tail of extras carries a dose. Transparency reads Excellent, with protein and processing and nutritional balance both Average. The poultry naming stops just short of full disclosure, and that is one of two things keeping it from climbing further. The other is carbohydrate at an estimated 44.2% of dry matter, close to the category norm, worked out on an assumed 8% moisture because the label declares none.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meat meal (min. 95% chicken) 29.5%, Sweet potato chips 22%, Potato flake, Poultry fat, Whole linseed, Beet pulp, Peas, Vitamins & minerals, Brewer's yeast, Dried egg, Carrots 1.2%, Parsnips 1.2%, Apple 1.2%, Marine algae meal, Kale 0.5%, Broccoli 0.5%, Spinach 0.5%, Glucosamine 350mg/kg, Blueberries 200mg/kg, Yucca 200mg/kg, Cranberries 200mg/kg, Chondroitin sulphate 200mg/kg, Carnitine 200mg/kg, Fennel 150mg/kg, Turmeric 100mg/kg

Poultry meat meal at 29.5% is the backbone, and the label goes further than most by declaring at least 95% of it as chicken. Meal is dried meat, so that 29.5% is weighed after the water has already gone. In the finished kibble it counts for more than a fresh meat entry of the same size would.

The starch is sweet potato chips at 22%, with potato flake beside them, peas and beet pulp behind, and no cereal anywhere. Carbohydrate still converts to 44.2% of dry matter, so grain-free here does not mean low carbohydrate. Beet pulp is the fibre, a moderately fermentable sort that keeps stools together.

Whole linseed is the omega 3 source, with marine algae meal behind it. Linseed supplies omega 3 in its plant form, and a dog's body is slow to convert that into the skin-active forms. The algae brings some of the marine forms straight in, with no fish oil anywhere in the recipe. If you are feeding for coat, give it a few weeks to answer.

The tail is where the thinking shows. Glucosamine at 350mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 200mg/kg cover the joints. Carnitine at 200mg/kg is an amino acid involved in turning fat into usable energy, and yucca at 200mg/kg is the traditional answer to a strong-smelling stool. Blueberries, cranberries, fennel and turmeric round things off at 200mg/kg and below. Brewer's yeast above them is a proper source of the B vitamins.

The trace elements arrive in pairs, each mineral given once in a standard oxide or sulphate and once as a chelate. A dog's gut takes the chelate up more readily. Selenium comes as organic selenium, not the usual sodium salt. Taurine is dosed at 250mg per kilo and vitamin E at 400mg, both generous declarations for an everyday adult food.

The bags run 2.5kg, 10kg and 12.5kg, at £5.28 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition eats about 232 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which works out at £1.23 a day. The label asks 150 to 255 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so begin there and let condition settle the rest.