Skinner's Skinners Get Out and Go Adult Extra Energy review

This one reaches our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, and the things it does well are plain ones. The animal content leads the list in dried form and is almost entirely named as chicken. There is no cereal at all. Carbohydrate estimates at 35.2% of dry matter, well below the 46.2% usual for the category, because the meat and the fat take up the room instead. Transparency reads Excellent, with nutritional balance a step behind on Good and protein and processing a step behind that on Average. Pea protein and the unnamed poultry fat are the two entries that stop it climbing further, and for a healthy dog in work neither is a reason to hesitate.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meat meal (min. 95% chicken) 31%, Sweet potato chips 16%, Potato flakes, Poultry fat, Whole linseed, Pea protein, Beet pulp, Dried egg 2.5%, Peas, Vitamins & minerals, Brewer's yeast, Carrots 1.2%, Apple 1.2%, Parsnips 1.2%, Marine algae meal, Kale 0.5%, Broccoli 0.5%, Spinach 0.5%, Seaweed 500mg/kg, Glucosamine 350mg/kg, Chondroitin sulphate 200mg/kg, Cranberries 200mg/kg, Blueberries 200mg/kg, Yucca 200mg/kg, Turmeric 100mg/kg, Ginger 100mg/kg

Poultry meat meal at 31% opens the list, at least 95% of it chicken by the label's own declaration. Because a meal is dried before it is weighed, that 31% survives the oven in a way a fresh meat percentage does not. It is the main reason protein finishes at 32.6% of dry matter.

Sweet potato chips at 16% and potato flakes do the binding, a smaller starch share than the other recipes in this line carry, which is exactly what makes room for the extra protein and fat. Peas and beet pulp follow, beet pulp being the fibre that keeps a stool together on a rich food. The label declares no moisture, so the dry matter figures here work from the 8% usual for a kibble.

Pea protein deserves its own mention. It is a refined plant protein, there to lift the total, and not a whole vegetable. For amino acid quality and digestibility it trails meat protein, though at the position it holds it is a supporting player and not a substitute. Dried egg at 2.5% pulls the other way, since egg is one of the most complete proteins a recipe can carry.

Whole linseed and marine algae meal supply the omega 3 with no fish oil involved, and seaweed at 500mg/kg brings iodine along with a spread of other minerals. Turmeric and ginger at 100mg/kg each sit at the very bottom of the list, kitchen flavourings with a long folk reputation, present in gesture rather than in force.

The mineral panel is the modern sort, with iron, copper, manganese and zinc each appearing twice. One entry is a standard salt and the other a chelate. A dog absorbs the chelate form more easily. Vitamin E is dosed at 400mg per kilo, which suits a fatty recipe, since the antioxidants are there to keep the fat fresh as much as to feed the dog.

£5.28 a kilo, in 2.5kg, 10kg and 12.5kg bags.

On the energy maths, a 15kg adult in moderate condition needs roughly 220 grams a day at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That puts it at £1.16 a day. A dog genuinely in work eats more than that. The label's guide of 150 to 245 grams for a 10kg to 20kg dog is written with the busier dog in mind.