Bosch Senior review

Our Average band is where this food comes out, a step under a Good typical for adult dry recipes. The reading is about construction: the first ingredient is a meat meal with no species named, plant matter outweighs animal by some distance, and protein finishes at 20.7% of dry matter. None of that makes it a risky food. The low fat and modest calories are deliberate senior choices, and for an easy-going older dog they read as gentleness rather than shortfall.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meat meal, rice, barley, corn, millet, dried beet pulp (desugared), cellulose powder, protein hydrolysate, animal fat, fish meal, peas, fish oil, dried yeast (incl. 0.1% mannan oligosaccharides, 0.06% β-glucans), potassium chloride, sodium chloride, green-lipped mussel extract (0.1%), dried chicory.

Poultry meat meal opens the list, and meal is the concentrated form: the water is already gone, so it delivers more finished protein than its fresh equivalent would. The trade is that neither the poultry nor the animal fat behind it names a species, which could mean chicken in one batch and turkey in the next. Most dogs will never notice; a dog with a known bird intolerance is the exception.

Rice, barley, corn and millet share the starch work, with desugared beet pulp and cellulose powder pushing fibre to 7.1% of dry matter. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 60.3% of dry matter, a high figure against the 46.2% typical, which is the main reason the analysis reads plant-led.

The senior intent shows in the small print. Green-lipped mussel extract at 0.1% is a well-regarded natural joint support, fish oil brings marine omega 3s, and the dried yeast carries mannan oligosaccharides at 0.1% and beta-glucans at 0.06% for the gut. Vitamin E is dosed generously at 400mg per kilo, an antioxidant older cells make good use of.

Fat at 6% and energy at 320 kcal per 100g make this one of the lighter loads a senior bowl can carry, sensible for a dog whose metabolism has slowed. Calcium works out at 0.87% of dry matter, a comfortable adult level. Zinc is declared in two forms, 70mg as an oxide and 75mg as a chelate, and chelates are the ones makers pick for better absorption.

£3.01 a kilo, in a 12.5kg bag that is also offered as a twin pack.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75) translates to around 262 grams, or £0.79 a day. The label's table suggests 215 to 245 grams for a dog between 15kg and 17.5kg. Let your dog's waistline pick the number.