Wainwright's Light Small Breed Adult Dry Food review

Our band for this recipe is Good, which is also where the median adult dry food comes out, so the detail matters more than the placing. Transparency reads Outstanding, helped by a label that prints a figure beside nearly everything it contains. Protein and processing reads Average, and so does nutritional balance: the meat share is moderate at a third of the recipe, and cereal takes up a good deal of what is left. None of that gets in the way of the job it was made for, which is holding a small dog steady on fewer calories without leaving them staring at an empty bowl.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (33%) (Dried Turkey 28%, Freshly Prepared Turkey 5%), Rice (26%), Whole Grain Barley (19%), Beet Pulp (8.5%), Whole Ground Oats (4.5%), Rapeseed Oil, Dried Peas (3% equivalent to 12.5% Peas), Linseed (2%), Dried Carrot (1% equivalent to 8% Carrots), Seaweed (0.2%), Glucosamine (0.05%), Yucca Extract (0.02%), Chondroitin (0.015%)

Turkey at 33% is split into 28% dried and 5% freshly prepared, and the balance between those two is the number that matters. Weight put into the dried portion keeps far more animal protein in the finished kibble, since fresh meat shrinks away to very little once cooked. Protein reads 25.0%, converting to 27.5% of dry matter.

Rice at 26% opens the plant side, then whole grain barley at 19%, then whole ground oats at 4.5%. Cooked this way they are straightforward to digest. The whole grain forms also carry fibre and micronutrients that refining strips out. Beet pulp at 8.5% is the fibre workhorse here, and fibre is what stops a smaller ration feeling like a smaller meal.

Fat at 8.5% is the honest surprise on this label. The lightness is in the portion, not in a dramatic cut to the fat line. L-carnitine at 150 mg is added to help the body move fat towards being used. For a small dog, feeding to a measured amount rather than a generous scoop is what makes the difference.

Dried peas at 3% represent 12.5% of fresh peas and dried carrot at 1% represents 8% of fresh, which is the transparent way to declare an ingredient that has had its water taken out. Linseed at 2% supplies omega 3 in the plant form, slower to reach the skin than the marine kind but useful all the same. Seaweed at 0.2% brings iodine, and yucca extract at 0.02% is aimed at what the garden has to deal with afterwards.

Glucosamine at 0.05% and chondroitin at 0.015% both carry a printed percentage. Many labels manage less than that. Both are made from animal material at manufacture, so a dog held strictly to turkey and nothing else has these two sitting just outside the line, though at supplement scale.

Zinc at 50 mg, iron and manganese at 40 mg each, copper at 5 mg, iodine at 1 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg per kilo are all declared. The vitamin line is there too, dosing vitamin E at 150 mg. The trace elements are sulphates and oxides rather than chelated forms, which a dog absorbs slightly less readily, so it helps that every dose is on show.

£4.75 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

On the standard reference of a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, that would be about 262 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.24 a day. Almost every dog eating a small breed recipe will be lighter than that. The label's own table asks 90 to 175 grams a day for a dog between 5kg and 12kg, and 25 to 90 grams for anything under 5kg.