Skipper's Turkey with Sweet Potato & Cranberry review

Our reading places this in the Good band, where most adult dry food sits too. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance Average, with value and protein and processing both at Good. The label names its meat, prints the split behind it, holds a sensible analysis and puts real figures against the small print instead of merely listing names.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 50% (including Freshly Prepared Turkey 28%, Dried Turkey 20% & Turkey Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (26%), Peas (9%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Cranberry (0.3%), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

The 50% turkey headline splits three ways: 28% is freshly prepared turkey, 20% is dried and 2% is stock. Printing that breakdown matters. Before cooking, fresh meat is mostly water. That makes the 20% dried entry the source of much of the finished protein, and it is a solid figure for a kibble of this shape. Turkey digests easily and carries less fat than chicken. That is why the gentler recipes reach for it.

The biggest plant entry is sweet potato at 26%. Peas at 9% follow, then potato, and beet pulp handles the fibre. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and fat to 12.0%, a middle-of-the-road balance that suits a dog on ordinary daily walks rather than one in hard work.

Cranberry at 0.3% is a garnish, and the prebiotic pair is much the same. FOS at 96 mg/kg and MOS at 24 mg/kg feed the friendly bacteria low down in the gut. Both carry a printed dose, small though those doses are, and printing them is the honest thing to do. Linseed does more work, adding useful fibre and omega 3 in its plant form.

L-Carnitine at 500 mg per kilo is the most interesting line in the additive panel. It has a real job in fat metabolism and turns up most often in recipes written with waistlines in mind, so it makes sense on a turkey food. Every trace element carries a printed dose, copper at 15 mg and selenium at 0.3 mg per kilo among them. Calcium works out at 1.63% of dry matter, comfortable for an adult dog.

One footnote for the careful reader: the omega 3 supplement is described by its job and not by its source, so that line stays open. Everywhere else the recipe is tidy, so that one line is all a strict elimination diet has to query.

£6.50 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 235 grams a day on an estimate of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance figure), which comes to £1.53 a day. The bag's own guide suggests 145 to 250 grams for dogs of 10kg to 20kg, so trust your dog's shape over either number.