VetSpec Calm & Focused Formula review

This one comes out in our Good band, as most adult dry food does. The arithmetic behind that is unglamorous. Two chicken entries head the list before any plant appears. Protein converts to 31.3% of dry matter, and estimated carbohydrate comes in at 38.0% where the typical adult dry food runs at 46.2%. It gives up a little ground in the small print. Chicken digest is described by what it does and never by what it is made of, the herbs at the end carry no weights, and we have had to estimate the calorie figure.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (26.2%), chicken meat meal (26.2%), potato (24.2%), chicken fat (6.2%), peas (4.6%), whole linseeds, sugar beet pulp, chicken digest as gravy (1.6%), fish oil, sepiolite clay, calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, culinary herbs blend (chicory extract as source of fructo-oligosaccharides (0.3%), yeast extract as source of mannan-oligosaccharides (0.16%), dried seaweed (0.2%), parsley, alfalfa, yucca extract, rosemary, fennel, basil, thyme, oregano, aniseed), L-tryptophan, DLmethionine, magnesium sulphate

Chicken is declared twice, fresh at 26.2% and as chicken meat meal at 26.2%, and the pairing is the point. Fresh chicken is mostly water, and cooking takes a great deal of that weight away. The meal comes in already dried, and its share holds up in the finished bag. Having both at the same weight means the meat that survives is substantial, and the analysis agrees, with protein at 31.3% of dry matter and fat at 19.8%.

Potato is the main binder at 24.2%, peas sit behind it at 4.6%, and no grain appears at all. Estimated carbohydrate settles at 38.0% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. That is the figure you get when a recipe gives this much room to meat.

The name is earned at the end of the ingredients list. The body makes serotonin out of the amino acid L-tryptophan, and magnesium sulphate is here as a magnesium source. Neither is a sedative and neither will rewrite an anxious dog's temperament on its own. As a daily foundation to feed alongside training and a settled routine, though, they are a sensible pair to have in the recipe itself.

Chicken fat at 6.2% is a named animal fat, which always reads better than the anonymous kind, and the omega 3 comes from two directions. Whole linseeds bring the plant form, which a dog has to convert before it can be used, while the long-chain forms come ready-made in fish oil. Coat and skin are well covered between the two, and fish is on the list as a result.

Sugar beet pulp supplies the fibre. The culinary herbs blend hides the useful small entries: chicory extract at 0.3% supplying FOS and yeast extract at 0.16% supplying MOS. Both are prebiotics working on the flora of the large intestine, and dried seaweed at 0.2% brings iodine and trace minerals. Sepiolite clay is an absorbent mineral that keeps the kibble consistent, a processing aid with no nutritional job. Parsley, rosemary and thyme follow as seasoning, and the recipe would work without them.

The mineral panel is dosed in print and doubled up where it matters. Zinc and copper each appear twice over, first as a simple oxide or sulphate, then as an amino acid chelate. It is the chelated part that a dog's gut absorbs most readily. Selenium comes as selenised yeast at 0.1 mg per kilo, the organic form of it.

£8.97 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 225 grams a day. That assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate) against the estimated 374 kcal per 100g on this recipe, and works out at £2.02 a day. For a dog between 11kg and 20kg the label's own low activity table asks 130 to 200 grams. Where that and our figure differ, the waistline decides.