Trophy Pet Foods Trophy Lifestyle Special review

This one comes out in the Average band, a step under the Good band the typical adult dry food occupies, so the two are close neighbours. Wheat and maize ahead of the chicken, glucose syrup in fifth place and carbohydrate estimated at 55.4% of dry matter are what stop it climbing. The label is unusually forthcoming for its level, though. Four animal sources are named outright with no derivatives hiding them, the mineral panel is dosed in print, and taurine and L-Carnitine are both quantified. A dog with a settled stomach will do perfectly well on it.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, Maize, Chicken (min. 15% chicken meal and 4% freshly prepared chicken), Rice (min. 15%), Glucose Syrup, Chicken Fat, Lamb Meal (min. 3%), Wheatfeed, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Peas, Oats, Lucerne, Duck Meal, Yeast, Minerals, Potato, Full Fat Linseed, Carrot, Seaweed, Salmon Oil, Glucosamine, Green-Lipped Mussel, Yucca Schidigera, Rosemary, Blackcurrant, Pomegranate.

Wheat and maize in the first two places set the shape of this kibble, and rice at min. 15% joins them a little further along. When a dog reacts to grain, wheat is usually the culprit, so check it against your own dog's history first. Rice and the oats behind it are the softer options on the list.

The chicken is split into min. 15% chicken meal and 4% freshly prepared, and that is the useful way to declare it. Water cooks out of the fresh share in the oven, so the meal is what carries through. Lamb meal at min. 3% and duck meal sit behind it, so the animal side is a blend rather than a single species. Protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 55.4%.

Glucose syrup in fifth position is the entry most owners will pause on. It is there for palatability and for the colour the kibble takes on during cooking, and it is a plain sugar doing a plain job. Most dogs will never notice it. If you are keeping a diet deliberately simple, one of the shorter Trophy recipes fits that job better.

The supporting cast is genuinely useful. Full fat linseed brings plant omega 3s and salmon oil brings the marine kind. Seaweed adds iodine and trace minerals. Mannan oligosaccharides come from the yeast, a prebiotic aimed at the large intestine. Glucosamine and green-lipped mussel handle the joint side. Neither has a dose in print, so the help is real but unmeasured.

Two additives lift this label above its neighbours. Taurine at 385mg is an amino acid best known for heart muscle. L-Carnitine at 190mg gives the body a hand in turning fat into energy it can use. The rest of the panel is conventional, with zinc at 159mg plus 27mg as a glycine chelate, and rosemary, blackcurrant and pomegranate closing things out as antioxidant seasoning.

£3.09 a kilo, in 3kg and 14kg bags.

Working from about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that dog needs roughly 233 grams, which comes to £0.72 a day. Trophy's own table asks 217 grams for the same weight. Judge between the two by your dog's waistline.