Concept For Life Large Breed Senior review

On our scale this comes out in the Average band, a step under the Good band the broad middle of dry adult food occupies. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Good, with protein and processing Average. It earns the position honestly enough. The list opens on fresh chicken at 20%, and ash is the lowest in this brand's large breed range at 6.0% of dry matter. Carbohydrate ends up at an estimated 46.1% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food, and the small print is the most generous of the family. The unnamed animal material keeps it from going higher. Greaves meal, poultry protein and poultry fat between them account for a good share of the animal content without pinning a species to any of it.

Ingredients, as declared: 20% Fresh Chicken Meat, Rice, Maize, 12% Poultry Protein (Rich in Chicken, Partly Dried and Hydrolysed), Greaves Meal, Poultry Fat, Dried Beet Pulp (Desugared), Maize Protein, Linseed, Lignocellulose, Rice Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Brewer's Yeast (Dried), Egg (Dried), Sodium Chloride, 0.3% Salmon Oil, 0.2% Sunflower Oil, 0.2% Yeast Extract (Rich in Beta-Glucans and Mannan-Oligosaccharides), Psyllium Husks (Dried), 0.1% Chicory Inulin, 0.1% Aronia Extract (Dried, Rich in Polyphenols), Potassium Chloride, 0.04% Glucosamine, 0.02% Chondroitin Sulphate, 0.02% Extracts from Hops and Green Tea (Dried, Rich in Flavonoids), 0.01% Marigold Flower Meal (Rich in Lutein), Antioxidants.

Fresh chicken meat at 20% opens the list, and no other recipe in the brand's large breed range leads that way. Water makes up most of fresh meat, and the oven takes it away. The dried entries behind do more of the finished kibble's protein work than their position suggests.

Those dried entries are greaves meal and poultry protein at 12%. Greaves is what remains of animal tissue once the fat has been rendered out of it, a concentrated and perfectly usable protein source. The animal is never named, though, and poultry protein narrows things only as far as a bird. Between them they mean the recipe cannot tell you what your dog is eating in the way the fresh chicken entry can.

Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and fat to 16.3%, with energy declared at 382 kcal per 100g. Ash is 5.5%, converting to 6.0% of dry matter and the lowest in this family, which usually points to less bone and mineral bulk in the mix. The label leaves moisture out, so the dry matter figures assume 8%.

The plant side is rice, maize, maize protein and rice flour. Carbohydrate, at an estimated 46.1% of dry matter, is effectively the same as the 46.2% a typical adult dry food runs. Dried beet pulp, psyllium husks and lignocellulose supply the fibre, the last of those being purified plant fibre in powder form.

The senior thinking lives in the small print and there is plenty of it. The yeast extract at 0.2% brings beta glucans and mannan oligosaccharides for the gut. Antioxidants come from aronia extract at 0.1% and from hops and green tea extracts at 0.02%. Marigold flower meal at 0.01% supplies lutein for the eyes, and L-carnitine is dosed at 50mg/kg to help a slower dog handle fat. The mineral top ups are calcium carbonate and potassium chloride.

Salmon oil at 0.3% and linseed cover omega 3s from the marine and the plant side, and sunflower oil at 0.2% brings vitamin E and linoleic acid. Trace minerals get printed doses, zinc twice over at 100mg/kg as the sulphate and a further 60mg/kg as a glycine chelate.

Sold in 1.5kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 220 grams a day, taking maintenance at roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). An older large breed weighs a great deal more than that but often needs fewer calories per kilo than it once did, so start below the arithmetic and adjust by condition.