Calibra Verve Senior Medium & Large Breed review

Few senior recipes trouble our Excellent band, and this one gets there while the typical adult dry food waits a band below in Good. The two strongest readings are transparency at Outstanding and value at Excellent. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both come back Good. The scoring simply rewards what the label does: named animals up front, moderate starch, and a supplement bill most brands would spread across three products.

Ingredients, as declared: fresh deboned chicken (30 %), duck protein (26 %), potatoes (16 %), apple pulp dried (7 %), peas (5 %), poultry fat, pumpkin (4 %), yeasts, hydrolysed chicken liver (2 %), salmon oil (2 %), milk thistle seed (0.1 %), pineapple dried (0.1 %), glucosamine (1,000 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (600 mg/kg), prebiotics (mannan-oligosaccharides 150 mg/kg, β-glucans 120 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides 100 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (100 mg/kg), Boswellia serrata dried (80 mg/kg), green-lipped mussels extract (Perna canaliculus, 50 mg/kg).

The animal side is named and substantial: fresh deboned chicken makes up 30% and duck protein 26%. Protein converts to 31.1% of dry matter and fat stays at a senior-friendly 14.4%. Estimated carbohydrate lands at 39.8% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Potatoes at 16% carry the starch, and the fibre is built up deliberately: dried apple pulp at 7%, peas at 5% and pumpkin at 4% push crude fibre to 5.0%. That helps an older dog feel fed on fewer calories and keeps digestion moving.

The joint provision is the headline. Glucosamine at a full gram per kilo of food and chondroitin sulphate at 600 mg/kg run several times the doses found elsewhere in the Verve range. Boswellia serrata at 80 mg/kg and green-lipped mussel extract at 50 mg/kg add plant and marine support alongside.

Milk thistle seed at 0.1% is a liver-minded touch often reserved for senior formulas, and despite the name it is a plant seed, not a dairy ingredient. Hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% keeps flavour high for older appetites, and the marine omega 3s come in with salmon oil at 2%. The prebiotic trio and the chelated trace minerals are all dosed in the additive table.

£4.99 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, feeding works out at about £1.20 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, at roughly 241 grams a day. That works from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table suggests 180 grams for that weight, so let the waistline arbitrate.