Vitalin

Vitalin Small Breed: Chicken with Thyme review

Name: Vitalin Small Breed: Chicken with Thyme
Brand: Vitalin

69.5/100Good

DryAdult

Flavour

Vitalin's thinking in a kibble sized for little mouths, with no cereal in either bag. Chicken with Thyme declares 40% chicken, the largest meat share Vitalin prints anywhere. Both sit in our Good band, the chicken a little ahead.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Small breed adults, as the label and its portions are written for that size alone
Keeping a little dog off cereal
Toy and small dogs with early joint wear, given full-size joint doses
A poultry-sensitive terrier or spaniel. Lamb with Mint uses rapeseed oil and has no chicken anywhere

Worth watching

A feeding table that stops at 10kg, so a bigger dog is outside what it was written for
Chicken oil on top of the chicken in the Chicken with Thyme

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

69.5/100Good

Protein and processingGood

Nutritional balanceAverage

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueGood

The details

Dog fit

Listed for small adult dogs only. Check your dog's weight against the bag's table, which runs no higher than 10kg.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Small

Main protein

Chicken

The score, in context

Chicken 69.5
Lamb 63.7

All two Good. Typical dry food: Good.

The two finish in the order their meat shares suggest and closer than it sounds, so the meat your dog prefers is the better tie breaker.

What's in it

Chicken: dried, freshly prepared, gravy40%29% dried, 10% fresh, 1% gravy. The dried figure is what ends up in the bowl.
PotatoTakes the starch role in place of cereal.
Sugar beetFibre.
Chicken oilKeeps the bag on a single bird.
Whole peas, sweet potato5.0%The 5.0% is the peas.
Dried carrot, dried parsnip4.0% eachReal inclusions, well up the list.
Whole linseedPlant omega 3.
Chicory root extract, citrus extracts, MOS0.3% down to 0.1%
Glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin340, 340, 240 mg/kgThe same doses as the full-size bags.
Vinegar, spearmint, honey, nettle, thyme, yucca, Lactobacillus200mg/kg eachSeasoning, and the printed doses say so. The culture is tyndallised.

Chicken oil alongside the chicken, so this bag will not reduce a dog's poultry load.

Named ingredients

Chicken (40%, including Dried Chicken 29%, Freshly Prepared Chicken 10%, Chicken Gravy 1%), Potato, Sugar Beet, Chicken Oil, Whole Peas (5.0%), Sweet Potato, Dried Carrot (4.0%), Dried Parsnip (4.0%),Whole Linseed, Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.3%), Citrus Extracts (0.2%), Mannan-oligosaccharides (Prebiotic MOS) (0.1%), Glucosamine (340mg/kg), MSM (340mg/kg), Chondroitin (240mg/kg), Apple Cider Vinegar Powder (200mg/kg), Dried Spearmint (200mg/kg), Honey Powder (200mg/kg), Dried Nettle (200mg/kg), Dried Thyme (200mg/kg), Extract of Yucca Schidigera, Tyndallised Lactobacillus Helveticus HA-122 (0.005%).

Against the range

Meat: Chicken 40%, 29% dried; Lamb 36.5%, 25% dried.
Protein, dry matter: 29.7%; 25.3% on the lamb.
Carbohydrate, dry matter: 43.9%; 47.8% on the lamb.
Fat source: Chicken oil; Rapeseed oil on the lamb.

The meatier of the pair, and the one to pick unless poultry is the problem.

Both bags put a single named meat first, most of it dried, on potato and sweet potato with no cereal. Sugar beet does the fibre work, whole linseed brings plant omega 3, and the prebiotics and a tyndallised Lactobacillus culture are dosed the same in each.

The joint additions match the full-size bags: glucosamine and MSM at 340 mg/kg, chondroitin at 240 mg/kg. The herb, honey and vinegar entries at 200 mg/kg each are seasoning. The fat is what splits the pair: chicken oil in one, rapeseed oil in the other.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

345 kcal/100g

Estimated using Modified Atwater factors*

Protein

27%

Fat

13%

Fibre

Ash

Moisture

Dry weight

Protein

29.7%

Fat

14.3%

Fibre

3.3%

Ash

8.8%

Carbs

43.9%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

39%

Added water

Carbs

42.3%

Veg

8.8%

Oils

4.1%

Other

4.8%

Pricing & size