Ci Foods Ci Tickety Boo Senior: Salmon With Trout, Sweet Potato & Asparagus review

Good is where both varieties land, level with the typical adult dry food. What lifts them is honest labelling and a properly declared meat share. What holds them where they are is mainly nutritional balance, which reads Average on both, a consequence of the higher starch load that comes with building a lighter senior recipe.

Ingredients, as declared: Trout & Salmon 50% (including Freshly Prepared Trout 30%, Dried Salmon 11%, Freshly Prepared Salmon 4%, Salmon Oil 3%, Salmon Stock 2% ), Sweet Potato (24%), Potato, Peas (6%), Beet Pulp, Pea Protein, Linseed, Potato Protein, Minerals, Vitamins, Vegetable Stock, Asparagus (0.3%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), FOS (96 mg/kg), MOS (24 mg/kg)

Both labels put animal content at 50% and print the fresh and dried shares separately. The senior twist is what happens to the fat: 8.7% of dry matter in the fish variety and 9.8% in the turkey, well below the adult range. Energy comes down with it, to 340 and 343 kcal per 100g respectively. Lighter meals for slower days, without cutting the protein that maintains older muscle.

L-Carnitine is dosed at 480 mg per kilo on both labels. The amino acid does its main work in fat metabolism, and it turns up often in senior and weight-control recipes because it helps the body burn fat while holding onto lean muscle.

Both bags print their joint doses: glucosamine at 170 mg/kg, MSM at 170 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. These are supportive doses rather than therapeutic ones, and they are exactly what you hope to find on a food with Senior on the front.

The supporting cast is familiar from the adult range: sweet potato and potato for binding, peas behind them, beet pulp for fibre and linseed for plant omega 3s. Prebiotic FOS and MOS are dosed on both labels. The fish recipe also brings in pea and potato protein to shore up its amino acids.

A dose is printed for every trace mineral on both bags, and the fish variety lifts zinc to 65 mg per kilo, the mineral that skin and coat lean on hardest.

Trout leads the fresh share at 30%, and salmon completes the 50% across fresh, dried, oil and stock entries. The 3% of salmon oil carries the marine omega 3s an older coat appreciates. It is the lower-fat option of the pair at 8.7% of dry matter.

£4.04 a kilo for either variety, sold in 2kg bags, packs of four 2kg bags and a 13.5kg sack.

For a 15kg dog in moderate condition, feeding comes to about £1.00 a day on the fish recipe and £0.99 on the turkey. That takes a maintenance estimate of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75) as the basis.