Concept For Life Medium Breed Senior review

Set against the Good band where most adult dry food gathers, this recipe reads one level down for us, in the Average band. Three things account for it. Most of the 20% fresh chicken opening the list is water, and a good deal of that weight stays behind in the oven, so protein finishes at 27.2% of dry matter. Rice, maize, rice flour and maize protein between them push the carbohydrate estimate to 51.1% of dry matter. And greaves meal, a genuinely useful protein source, tells you nothing about which animal it came from. None of that stops it being a thoughtfully kitted out senior food, and an older medium dog fed on it gets joint support, antioxidants and a full micronutrient panel as standard.

Ingredients, as declared: 20% Fresh Chicken Meat, Rice, Maize, 12% Poultry Protein (Rich in Chicken, Partly Dried and Hydrolysed), Rice Flour, Greaves Meal, Dried Beet Pulp (Desugared), Poultry Fat, Maize Protein, Linseed, Lignocellulose, Calcium Carbonate, Brewer's Yeast (Dried), Egg (Dried), Sodium Chloride, 0.2% Salmon Oil, 0.2% Yeast Extract (Rich in Beta-Glucans and Mannan-Oligosaccharides), 0.1% Sunflower Oil, 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), Antioxidants.

Fresh chicken meat at 20% takes the top line, and fresh is the word to hold on to, since most of that declared weight is water that goes in the cooking. The 12% poultry protein sitting fourth is already partly dried, so it holds its weight better into the finished kibble. The hydrolysed portion of it is broken into smaller fragments that an older gut usually finds easier going. Protein lands at 27.2% of dry matter.

Most owners will not recognise greaves meal. It is the concentrated protein residue left once fat has been rendered out of animal tissue, and as a nutrient source it is dense and perfectly respectable. The catch is the same one that runs through the label: no species is named, and if you are keeping a dog off one animal in particular, this list cannot clear it.

Rice, maize and rice flour carry the starch, with maize protein adding a plant protein that lifts the headline figure without being animal protein. It adds up to a carbohydrate estimate of 51.1% of dry matter, above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Desugared beet pulp and dried psyllium husks handle the fibre, one fermentable and one soluble, and lignocellulose fills in behind them.

In the smaller entries the senior thinking shows, and it comes with doses attached. Glucosamine at 0.04% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.02% cover the joints, and L-carnitine at 50 mg per kilo helps with the way fat is put to use. Dried aronia at 0.1% brings polyphenols, with hops and green tea extracts at 0.02% adding flavonoids behind it. Calcium carbonate and potassium chloride are the mineral sources filling in the analysis.

For the fats, poultry fat does the heavy work, with linseed as the plant omega 3 source. Salmon oil at 0.2% supplies the marine forms and sunflower oil at 0.1% adds omega 6 with a little vitamin E. The added panel is dosed in print throughout, with vitamin E at 400 mg per kilo and choline chloride at 3000 mg per kilo. Zinc comes twice over, 100 mg per kilo of the sulphate plus another 60 mg as a glycine chelate, and that second form is absorbed most readily.

Bags come in 1.5kg, 6kg and 12kg.

As a rough guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would get through in the region of 227 grams a day. The basis is 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). What an older dog actually needs varies more than most, so start from that figure and adjust to the ribs and the waistline.