Skipper's Working Dog Food: Salmon & Potato review

Both bags finish in our Good band, level with the middle of the adult dry shelf and with each other, despite being built differently. Named fish, printed splits and dosed trace elements carry them both. Nutritional balance reads Average on the grain free bag and Poor on the one with oats and maize in it, the honest reading of a big starch base paired with a moderate protein figure. That is very much how an energy-first working recipe is meant to be put together.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 44% (Including Freshly Prepared Salmon 22%, Dried Salmon 13%, Salmon Oil 6% & Salmon Gravy 2%), Potato 24%, Oats, Maize 13%, Beet Pulp 4%, Minerals

Both recipes name their fish, which is the first thing to like about them. On the Salmon & Potato the figure is 44% salmon, made of 22% freshly prepared and 13% dried, plus 6% salmon oil and 2% salmon gravy. Salmon, Trout & Sweet Potato puts salmon and trout at 50%, printed as 2% fish stock, 12% dried salmon and 36% fresh. Fresh fish is heavy with water that the oven removes. That leaves the dried entries quietly doing a lot of the work in each bag.

The starch base is where the two part company. Potato at 24% with oats and maize at 13% underpins the Salmon & Potato, while sweet potato at 26% with peas and potato does the job in the grain-free recipe. Neither is shy about it. The carbohydrate estimates convert to 53.7% and 48.2% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for an adult dry food. Building energy that way into a hard-working dog's bowl is perfectly ordinary.

Salmon oil at 6% is the standout entry on the Salmon & Potato label. A named fish oil at a printed percentage is a genuinely welcome thing to see. It supplies the marine omega 3s that a coat and a set of joints appreciate on a dog in work. The grain-free recipe reaches similar ground by a different route, with linseed and an added omega 3 supplement, though that supplement is described by purpose and not pinned to a source.

Beet pulp appears in both as the fibre entry, which earns its keep on a dog eating large daily portions. Both labels dose their trace elements in print at zinc 50mg, iron 50mg, manganese 35mg and iodine 1mg per kilo, in the sulphate and iodate forms that are standard at this level.

Protein is the sober figure here, converting to 23.9% of dry matter in the Salmon & Potato and 28.3% in the Salmon, Trout & Sweet Potato. Neither is a high-protein performance food. They are energy-first recipes with a decent, honestly named fish share sitting on top, which is what most working homes are actually shopping for.

Salmon at 44%, with 6% named salmon oil counted inside that figure, on a base of potato at 24% plus oats and maize at 13%. Protein is 22.0% as fed with fat at 10.0%, the steadier of the two on paper, and calcium works out at 1.63% of dry matter. Pick this bag when oats agree with your dog and there is no reason to avoid cereal.

The Salmon & Potato is £4.67 a kilo in a 12kg sack, and the Salmon, Trout & Sweet Potato is £5.13 a kilo in a 15kg sack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats around 238 grams a day of the Salmon & Potato and 234 grams of the grain-free recipe. That assumes around 840 kcal a day, using 110 × bodyweight^0.75 as the standard maintenance estimate. That works out at £1.11 and £1.20 a day. Both labels set their own guides higher, and a dog in real work eats beyond these figures. Feed to the job in front of you and watch the waistline.