Yarrah Adult Small Breed review

Our scoring puts this recipe in our Good band, level with the middle of the dry adult category. The reasons it sits there are structural, and none of them is alarming. Dried chicken at 19% is the only substantial animal entry on the list, oats, wheat and corn follow it immediately, and rice protein lifts the protein figure from the plant side. Set against that, this is a certified organic food with MSC fish in it and a useful energy density for a small stomach. Calcium at 1.41% of dry matter reads sensibly for a small breed puppy as well as an adult. For a little dog with no cereal trouble, in a house that buys organic, it does exactly what it sets out to do.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried chicken* (19%), oats*, wheat*, corn*, chicken fat*, soy husks*, rice protein*, peas*, dried MSC herring¹, hydrolised liver*, soy beans*, brewers yeast, sunflower seed husks*, minerals, MSC fish oil¹. * = organic. ¹From an MSC certified sustainable fishery, www.msc.org. 96% of agricultural resources is sourced from organic agriculture.

Dried chicken at 19% leads, a shade ahead of the rest of the maker's dry range, and because the entry is dried the whole of it counts towards the protein in the finished kibble. Rounding out the animal side are dried MSC herring, hydrolysed liver and chicken fat. MSC fish oil comes last of all.

Then the cereals arrive together. Oats, wheat and corn take second, third and fourth. Oats are the most useful of the three, giving fibre and a spread of micronutrients including manganese, magnesium and B1, and they digest easily once cooked. Wheat sits behind more cereal intolerance in dogs than anything else, so weigh it against your own dog's history before you commit.

Rice protein, soy husks, peas and soy beans fill in behind. Rice protein is a concentrated plant protein, less efficiently used by a dog than meat, and its presence explains part of the 28.5% of dry matter the protein figure reaches. Peas earn their place with fibre and antioxidants plus a wide spread of vitamins, and the husks are there purely for fibre, which lands at 2.5% of dry matter, the lightest in the range.

This is the richest recipe the maker offers for fat, at 18.2% of dry matter and 385 kcal per 100g against 357 for the typical adult dry food. On a small dog that is a helpful thing, since a small stomach has to take a whole day's energy from a few spoonfuls of food. It also means portions want measuring rather than guessing, particularly for a little dog who is already well covered.

Hydrolysed liver is a palatant and a well chosen one for a small dog with opinions, since liver is about as appealing as ingredients get. MSC fish oil supplies marine omega 3s for skin and coat, and calcium reads 1.41% of dry matter. The additive panel repeats the range's one real transparency gap. Numbers appear for the vitamins and trace elements with no units at all against them, and that leaves nothing to weigh against another bag.

£7.16 a kilo, sold in a 5kg bag.

Scaled to a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, whose maintenance need is about 840 kcal a day using the standard 110 × bodyweight^0.75 estimate, that is around 218g a day at £1.56. In practice a small breed dog eats a fair bit less than that, so the figure is for comparing recipes.