Trophy Pet Foods Trophy Lifestyle Chicken, Rice & Veg review

Our scoring lands this one in the Good band. The middle of the adult dry shelf is in that band as well. The reasons read straight off the label: wheat and maize ahead of the chicken, an animal share declared at 18% meal and 8% fresh, and carbohydrate estimated at 58.8% of dry matter. What earns it back is a food that does the everyday job calmly, with a modest fat level, a full mineral panel printed in doses and a joint pair written in rather than implied. For an older dog on a quiet routine it is a sensible, undramatic choice.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, Chicken (min. 18% chicken meal and min. 8% freshly prepared chicken), Maize, Rice (min. 7.5%), Oats, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Wheatfeed, Peas, Chicken Fat, Lucerne, Potato, Carrot (min. 10% total vegetables), Yeast (source of mannan oligosaccharides), Minerals, Glucosamine, Green-Lipped Mussel, Yucca Schidigera, Rosemary, Blackcurrant, Pomegranate.

Put wheat in first place and you have said where the bulk of this kibble comes from. Maize and wheatfeed behind it say much the same thing. In dogs that react to grain, wheat is the cereal most often sitting behind a grumbling gut or an itchy coat. Check it against your own dog's history before you look at anything else.

The chicken is declared in both its forms, which is the honest way to print it. The min. 18% chicken meal is the part carrying most of the protein through to the finished kibble, because the min. 8% freshly prepared chicken loses the bulk of its water in the oven. Protein converts to 21.7% of dry matter, on the gentle side. Estimated carbohydrate comes to 58.8% against the 46.2% typical for an adult dry food.

Rice at min. 7.5% and oats bring the softer cereals along, and unmolassed beet pulp behind them helps explain crude fibre at a healthy 5.0%. Mannan oligosaccharides are what the yeast entry is there for. They are a prebiotic, and it is the gut bacteria further along that benefit. Peas, lucerne, potato and carrot make up the declared 10% of vegetables.

Glucosamine and green-lipped mussel are the joint entries. Neither carries a printed dose, so read them as genuine support and not as a measured helping. The mussel is a shellfish and brings its own omega 3s along. In a household that avoids shellfish, that is the line to note.

The mineral panel is dosed in print, and it includes a chelated zinc entry at 30mg alongside 105mg as the sulphate. Chelated minerals are generally the ones a dog takes up most readily. Rosemary at the end is doing antioxidant work, keeping the fats from turning. Blackcurrant and pomegranate are the label's flourish, and its substance lies elsewhere. The food stands on its chicken and its calm analysis instead.

£3.09 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 14kg bags.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about £0.80 a day, on roughly 260 grams of kibble. The target used is 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own chart puts that same dog at 231 grams. Between the two figures, the waistline decides.