ProBalance

ProBalance scores 54 out of 100 overall and shares our $ price tier with Woofin' Good!, Baxter's, Julius and Black & Gold. Those four are supermarket house brands locked to Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. ProBalance is not: our index records it as a widely distributed value brand rather than a label owned by the shop selling it. The difference shows in the pillar, at 56 out of 100 for transparency against 45, 42, 43 and 40.

The panel separates it as well. ProBalance Adult Chicken 18kg logs chicken meal and cereals together at the head of the panel, while all four supermarket bags lead with cereals and meat meal. Protein is declared at 23% and fat at 12%, against 20% protein in the Woofin' Good! bag and 18% in the Baxter's, Julius and Black & Gold bags. Ingredient quality lands at 51 out of 100, best of the five, and still low across the wider index.

The 18kg bag is $89.00 AUD at Budget Pet Products, the only stockist we track carrying it, which is $4.94 per kg and about $1.50 a day for a 15kg adult dog on our editorial estimates. Per kilogram that is close to double the supermarket bags: $2.25 for Black & Gold, $2.50 for Julius, $2.72 for Woofin' Good! and $2.61 for Baxter's. Per day the gap shrinks to 30 to 50 cents, roughly $110 to $180 across a year.

Run the same maths upward and it turns against ProBalance. SavourLife Original Adult Chicken 18kg estimates at $145.00 AUD, about $8.06 per kg and $2.00 a day. Black Hawk Adult Chicken & Rice 20kg estimates at $169.00 AUD and about $2.10 a day, and drops to $162.00 AUD through the same Budget Pet Products checkout. Fifty to sixty cents a day separates them from ProBalance, and those bags rate 83 and 85 out of 100 against the 62 we give this one.

The shopper this fits is specific: feeding to a fixed weekly budget, wanting something ahead of a cereal-first supermarket panel, and happy to order online rather than pick up in store. At $89.00 AUD it clears Budget Pet Products' $59 free-shipping threshold on its own and covers roughly 59 days for a 15kg adult dog on our estimates. Our best-for note points at mixing with a fresh topper, a fair way to work around a 51 out of 100 panel. Not veterinary advice.

Skip it if the panel decides the purchase. Nutrition scores 54 out of 100 and sentiment 56, and the single formula we have indexed carries no named single-source protein: chicken meal shares first billing with cereals. Availability is also thinner than the 63 out of 100 pillar reads, since Budget Pet Products is the one retailer we track for it, with no member price, price match or subscription rate on this bag. Ivory Coat's 13kg lamb bag at $135.00 AUD, about $2.40 a day, is the cleaner step up.