Calibra Life Fresh Beef Senior Small review

Senior recipes rarely trouble the upper bands, and this one settles in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food. Transparency reads Outstanding on the pillar breakdown, with protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all Good, a balanced result with no weak leg.

Ingredients, as declared: beef protein (27 %), fresh beef (26 %), rice (26 %), dried apple pulp (9 %), beef fat (preserved with tocopherols, 6 %), hydrolysed yeasts (2 %), salmon oil (2 %), egg shells (a source of calcium, 1 %), pea flour, milk thistle seed (0.4 %), dried blackcurrant (0.2 %), glucosamine (310 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (210 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (120 mg/kg), dried rosemary (100 mg/kg), dried thyme (100 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (80 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (70 mg/kg), inactivated bacteria and parts thereof (Lactobacillus helveticus HA - 122, 15 x 109 cells/kg).

More than half the declared recipe is beef once you add the 27% dried beef protein to the 26% fresh. The dried share matters most in a kibble, since it arrives with its water already removed, and it lifts protein to 29.7% of dry matter.

Rice at 26% handles the starch as the only grain, and estimated carbohydrate converts to 46.1% of dry matter, in line with the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Fat runs at 14.3% of dry matter, led by named beef fat at 6% with salmon oil at 2% behind it for omega 3s. That keeps energy at 370 kcal per 100g, useful for small seniors that burn hot but eat small meals.

The senior toolkit is printed, not implied. Joints get 310 mg/kg glucosamine with 210 mg/kg chondroitin sulphate, the prebiotics are MOS at 120 mg/kg and FOS at 70 mg/kg, and an inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture goes in for the gut. Milk thistle seed and dried blackcurrant add the herbal grace notes.

Egg shell at 1% is a simple food-based calcium source. The trace minerals are organic chelates, each carrying its dose in the additive table.

£4.73 a kilo, sold in 100g, 1.5kg and 6kg sizes.

Working from the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75), a day's feeding is roughly 227 grams, or £1.07. A genuinely small dog will use far less; the label asks just 75 grams a day of a 5kg dog.