Chicken

Chicken appears on the labels of 112 of the 244 recipes we have read and scored (46 percent of the database), in label forms including Deboned Chicken, Chicken, DEBONED CHICKEN, dehydrated chicken, chicken.

What it is

The fresh flesh of chicken, weighed into the recipe before cooking. Fresh meat is roughly two thirds water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top of the panel suggests.

Why makers use it

It is the industry's default animal protein: palatable, widely available and complete in amino acids.

What to watch for

A chicken first panel is a good start, not a full story. What matters is the animal protein depth behind it: meals, organs and egg further down the list.

Highest scoring recipes that carry it

The full database, filterable by brand, format, life stage and grains, is the reviews index; the food finder answers it by the proteins a dog must avoid.

Often on the same panels

Vitamin Supplements (the Vitamin Pack), Salt, Selenium Yeast and Sodium Selenite, Choline Chloride. The full dictionary is the ingredient index.