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

A lighter recipe does not have to be a lesser one, though our scoring places this one in our Average band, a step under the Good band where the typical adult dry food finishes. Meat still leads the list, the starch is grain-free, and the extras are declared with doses rather than left as names on a page. Its transparency pillar comes out Excellent, while protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average. The carbohydrate estimate of 47.9% of dry matter is the highest of the three recipes in this line, which is what happens when fat comes down and something has to fill the space. It is worked out on an assumed 8% moisture, because the label declares none.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meat meal (min. 95% chicken) 25%, Sweet potato chips 21.4%, Potato flakes, Beet pulp, Poultry fat, Peas, Whole linseed, Vitamins & minerals, Brewer's yeast, Dried egg, Carrots 1.2%, Parsnips 1.2%, Apple 1.2%, Pea protein, Marine algae meal, Kale 0.5%, Broccoli 0.5%, Spinach 0.5%, Alfalfa 500mg/kg, Glucosamine 350mg/kg, Chondroitin sulphate 200mg/kg, Cranberries 200mg/kg, Yucca 200mg/kg, Turmeric 100mg/kg, Ginger 100mg/kg, Marigold 100mg/kg

Poultry meat meal at 25% leads, the smallest meat declaration of the three Get Out and Go recipes. It is still a dried meal, so the kibble holds more of it than the figure alone suggests. At least 95% of it is chicken by the label's own statement, with the remainder left to the wider poultry family.

The starch is potato flakes and sweet potato chips at 21.4%, and beet pulp in fourth place is the giveaway that this is the lighter recipe. Beet pulp is a moderately fermentable fibre that adds bulk and very little energy. That suits a dog on a smaller ration, and it is why crude fibre reads 4.3% of dry matter here.

Whole linseed brings omega 3 in its plant form and marine algae meal adds some of the marine forms, so the recipe holds its coat support without any fish oil at all. Alfalfa at 500mg/kg is this recipe's own addition, a green forage carrying fibre and a spread of minerals.

The rest of the tail will be familiar from the range: glucosamine at 350mg/kg, chondroitin sulphate at 200mg/kg, cranberries and yucca at 200mg/kg, and turmeric, ginger and marigold at 100mg/kg each. No entry there is a large one and the recipe would stand without them, but each is given with a dose.

Carrots, parsnips and apple at 1.2% each, with kale, broccoli and spinach at 0.5%, are the named plants, small but honest declarations. Pea protein sits mid-list and is the one plant protein doing work the meat could have done, while brewer's yeast and dried egg further up both lift the quality of what is around them.

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

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition takes about 242 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which lands at £1.28 a day. Skinner's own guide runs higher for that weight, at 160 to 275 grams, so let the ribs be the judge.