Briantos Senior: Poultry & Rice review

An Average band finish puts this below the typical adult dry food and its Good band: protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Poor, while transparency comes back Good. The shortfall is structural: one modest animal-protein entry, five grains, and bulk fibre in place of richer ingredients. Read the other way, nothing here is menacing, and the low fat and mild calories genuinely fit a sedentary senior. It does the light-duty job it was designed for, just with modest materials.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried poultry protein (17.5%), rice (14%), maize, barley, sorghum, millet, dried beet pulp (desugared), lignocellulose, poultry fat, protein hydrolysate, fish oil, dried peas, dried yeast (source of 0.03% mannan-oligosaccharides), dried chicory (source of 0.28% inulin), potassium chloride, chondroitin sulphate (0.05%), glucosamine (0.05%).

Dried poultry protein at 17.5% is the only meat entry of substance, and it keeps its species private, so it could be chicken, turkey or another bird from batch to batch. Protein converts to 21.7% of dry matter, at the gentle end for a kibble but a reasonable fit for a slow senior.

The grain bench is five deep: rice at 14%, then maize, barley, sorghum and millet. Rice and barley form the digestible backbone, millet and sorghum bring gluten-free variety, and maize is the filler of the family. Together they push the estimated carbohydrate to 58.8% of dry matter.

Lignocellulose is the entry to know about. It is processed plant fibre, often from forestry by-products, used to add bulk and keep calories down in light and senior recipes. It works, but it nourishes nothing.

The senior extras are real yet lightly dosed: glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate at 0.05% each, mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.03% and inulin from chicory at 0.28% for the gut. Think of them as a supportive whisper rather than a therapeutic dose.

Fish oil supplies the omega 3s, beet pulp gives useful fibre, and every additive dose is printed, with part of the zinc in the better-absorbed chelated form.

£2.59 a kilo, from a 1kg bag.

Working from the standard 840 kcal maintenance estimate for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75), the day comes to about 261 grams and £0.68. The label itself suggests 140 to 210 grams for a 10kg dog, scaling up with weight.