Specific Adult Medium Breed CXD-M review

Our reading puts this in the Average band while most adult dry food gathers in the Good band, and a couple of things drive that. The animal share is modest for a dry food, with fish meal sitting third behind two plant entries. The maize protein above it means the 22.6% protein on the analysis does not all come from the sea. Then there is what the label leaves out: ash is missing, so a full dry matter conversion is off the table, and one animal entry is described only as a hydrolysate. A medium adult who eats it happily and holds condition on it is doing fine on this bowl. It is a conventional, competently built kibble, and our scoring, which leans hard on named meat and declared detail, does not flatter that construction.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, maize protein, fish meal, pork fat, beet pulp, minerals, animal protein hydrolysate, fish oil, vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), egg powder, lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, rosemary extract. With natural antioxidants (tocopherols and vitamin C).

Wheat at the front accounts for most of the kibble, and maize protein directly behind it says something about the protein figure. Maize protein is a concentrated plant protein. It lifts a declared percentage, though it is short on some amino acids a dog needs most. That is exactly why lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan appear individually at the end of the list. Topping them up is sound formulation, not a warning sign, though it does confirm that the 22.6% protein is a blend and not a fish total.

Fish meal is the animal protein and it is the concentrated form, only around 5 to 7% water, so it carries a lot of amino acids for its position on the list. What the wording does not do is name a species. Fish meal can be made from a single catch or from a mix, so a dog with a specific fish reaction is not covered by this entry.

Pork fat names both the animal and the material. Most dry foods do not label their fat that well. Fish oil follows further down as the omega 3 source, and beet pulp above it supplies the fibre, with crude fibre landing at 2.1% as fed, which is on the gentle side. Near the end sits egg powder, a small amount of very high quality protein.

Calcium works out at 0.77% of dry matter, a comfortable level for an adult dog and no more than that, which fits a food written for maintenance rather than growth. Energy is declared rather than estimated at 373 kcal per 100 grams, a little above the 357 typical for adult dry food, so the portions on the chart are correspondingly modest.

Chelated trace elements are used, since a gut generally takes those up most readily. Rosemary extract, tocopherols and vitamin C do the preserving here, with no synthetics. There is no separate additives panel published for this range, so the doses behind those entries are not visible. Animal protein hydrolysate is the one entry that names nothing at all. It is there as a palatant and is unremarkable for most dogs, but it is the reason this food cannot be used to rule a species out.

Sold in 4kg, 7kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 225 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own chart asks 195 grams for a 14kg dog and 215 grams for a 16kg dog, which lands in much the same place. Weigh the first few portions and adjust to the waistline from there.