Collards Older/Overweight Dry Salmon and Potato review

Our bands place this in the Average band, a step below the typical adult dry food. Salmon named throughout, an itemised list where nearly everything carries a percentage and a transparency pillar reading Outstanding are what carry it up. The modest animal share and the starch filling the space behind it are what stop it climbing. Taken as what it says it is, a softer everyday bowl for an older or heavier dog, it does the job asked of it.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 29% (Fresh Salmon 25%, Salmon Meal 4%), Dried Potato 23%, Whole Sorghum 17%, Potato Protein 7%, Whole Barley 7.5%, Naked Oats, Whole linseed 4%, Sugar Beet Pulp 4%, Dicalcium phosphate, Dried Alfalfa 0.8%, Sunflower Oil, Natural Seaweed Meal 0.4%, Fructo-Oligosaccharide (from chicory root extract 0.25%), Sodium chloride, Potassium chloride, Methionine, Molluscs and Crustaceans as source of glucosamine, Yucca extract 0.01%, Chondroitin, Taurine, Marigold extract 0.005%, Rosemary extract 0.005%.

Salmon at 29% is split into 25% fresh salmon and 4% salmon meal, and that split matters more here than usual. Fresh fish is mostly water and loses it in the oven, so with only 4% of dried meal standing behind it, the finished kibble carries less fish than the front of the bag first suggests. Protein settles at 20.9% of dry matter, which suits a gentler diet, though an older dog still needs enough to hold its muscle, so watch condition as you go.

Dried potato at 23% and whole sorghum at 17% lead the plant side, with whole barley at 7.5% and naked oats behind them. Naked oats are the hull-free form, so more of what goes in is grain and less of it is husk. Carbohydrate is estimated at 57.7% of dry matter, above the 46.2% a typical adult dry food carries, which is where the lighter fish share has gone.

Potato protein at 7% is a plant protein lifting the analysis, so the protein figure is worth reading with that in mind. Methionine appears further down the list, an amino acid added to balance a recipe leaning partly on plant protein, which is careful formulating rather than a filler.

The later-life additions are all present. The glucosamine comes through molluscs and crustaceans, with chondroitin beside it. Taurine is the amino acid usually put in for the heart, and whole linseed at 4% brings plant omega 3. The label prints no dose for any of them. Read them as genuinely included, not as measured amounts.

Dicalcium phosphate supplies calcium and phosphorus, and calcium works out at 1.12% of dry matter, a moderate level for a grown dog. Sugar beet pulp at 4% provides the fibre, chicory-derived fructo-oligosaccharide at 0.25% feeds the gut bacteria, and sunflower oil finishes the fat off with omega 6 and natural vitamin E.

The bag comes in 2kg with a resealable top, or in 10kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would take about 251 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That figure is worked from estimated energy, not declared energy. The label puts the same dog at 240 grams, and for a dog being slimmed the lower of the two is the sensible place to start.