We had expected this to be a better food than the general run of the mill Hill's foods but it turns out to not be the case.
We could not find the ingredients list on their web site - just marketing hype regarding some of the better quality ingredients which attempted to hide the fact that these ingredients are so far down the ingredients list as to actually prove they were only included in small quantities to allow them to be listed not to actually provide a good quality nutritious food.
Ingredients (This list has been obtained elsewhere):-
Ground corn, poultry meal, corn gluten, animal fat, digest, brown rice, vegetable oil, ground barley, whole oats, linseed, beet pulp, potassium citrate, dried carrots, dried peas, tomatoes, grains, spinach powder, fruit pulp of citrus fruits, grapes, grains, sodium chloride, L-lysine hydrochloride, L-carnitine, potassium chloride, iron oxide, calcium carbonate, L-tryptophan, vitamins and trace elements. Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, citric acid and rosemary extract.
You will note that this food should really be labelled as "Maize and Poultry".
Feeding Guide:
A very wide range is indicated - the average for a 30Kg dog is >13g/Kg/day
Costings and Comparisons
On 19th January 2011 the retail price in Portugal is 67,95€ for a 12Kg bag
The daily feeding cost for giving our 20Kg dog 260g of this works out at 1,47€
To feed Applaws Chicken (guide is only 210g per day due to higher nutritional content) would cost 0,97€ per day and Applaw's first listed ingredient is "Chicken MEAT meal" not simply a 2nd entry of "Poultry meal" (this actually makes quite a bit of difference when you are considering how much of the carcass of various poultry (not necessarily chicken of course) you would actually use when the connective tissues, internal organs and even some intestine and skin could be included under the generic term "Poultry").
To put it even more into perspective with a lower level food (still far better than the Hill's) you could feed the Burns "Chicken & Maize" for only 0,80€ per day.
The inclusion of "Animal Fat" and "Digest" really show the true colours of this food and the need to add salt as a flavouring (that is, of course, what Sodium Chloride is) shows that any dog in his right mind wouldn't go near the food without.
Star Rating
We would give this less than a 0 star rating if we were doing negatives
Closing Note
Note that the main ingredient is "Ground Corn" and the meat protein source is listed as "Poultry meal" - so it is not necessarily all Chicken as they would have you believe.