Forthglade Cold Pressed Grain Free Chicken

Cold pressing is the reason to look at this bag rather than the one next to it. Most dry food is extruded — cooked at high temperature and pressure — while cold-pressed food is compressed at low temperature, which produces a denser pellet that breaks down differently in the stomach. Plenty of owners of sensitive dogs find it suits them better, and Forthglade lean on that.

Chicken is 32.5% of it, split between 17.5% freshly prepared chicken and 15% dried ground chicken, with sweet potato at 28% and peas behind it. There is dried fruit at 2.3% — apples, pears, blueberries and cranberries — salmon oil at 1%, beet pulp as a source of FOS, and dried botanicals at 0.6%: fennel, nettle and dandelion. The analysis gives crude protein 26%, crude oils and fats 12%, crude fibres 4.9% and crude ash 6.6%, with omega-6 at 1.9% and omega-3 at 0.45%. The bag is resealable.

• 6kg resealable bag
• Cold pressed rather than extruded
• Chicken 32.5% — 17.5% freshly prepared, 15% dried
• Sweet potato 28%, no grain
• Protein 26%, oils and fats 12%, crude fibres 4.9%
• Dried fruit 2.3% and botanicals 0.6%

Cold-pressed food is fed differently, and the pellets are hard. It is denser than extruded kibble, so the feeding quantities are not interchangeable — use Forthglade's own guide rather than carrying over the amount from your last bag, and change over gradually across a week. For puppies Forthglade advise soaking the pellets in warm water for 10 minutes to soften them, which is worth knowing before a small dog meets one dry. If you decant it, use a container that lets the food breathe rather than an airtight one.

Who it's for: dogs with a delicate stomach, owners who have tried extruded food and want to try something structurally different, and anyone wanting a grain-free bag with named fruit and botanicals rather than a vitamin premix alone.