Eukanuba Caring Senior Large Breed review

Our banding leaves this in the Good band, and the typical adult dry food occupies the Good band as well, so the two stand level with each other. Leading on fresh chicken, dosing the joint compounds and declaring the moisture are the parts working in its favour. Against it are the cereals filling the middle of the recipe, carbohydrate at 48.7% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical, and a fat that never names its species.

Ingredients, as declared: fresh chicken (22%), dried chicken and turkey (21% including chicken 15%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), wheat, maize, barley, oats, maize grits, rice, poultry fat, dried beet pulp (2.6%), chicken gravy, dried whole egg, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.34%), fructooligosaccharides (0.37%, a natural prebiotic), brewer's dried yeast (a natural source of B-vitamins and selenium), fish oil (a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids), mannanoligosaccharides (0.13%, a natural prebiotic), glucosamine (from animal tissues) (0.04%), chondroitin sulphate (0.004%).

Fresh chicken heads the list at 22%, and it is worth understanding what that position means. Most of what fresh meat weighs is water, and the water leaves during cooking. That puts more of the finished kibble's work on the dried chicken and turkey at 21%, chicken pinned at 15% within it. Between them, protein comes out at 28.3% of dry matter, a good level for an older dog that still needs to hold on to its muscle.

The cereal side is unusually broad: wheat, maize, barley, oats, maize grits and rice. Barley and oats are the useful two, since between them they bring fibre and a spread of micronutrients. Rice is easy on a digestion that has slowed with age. Wheat is the entry most often behind a grain intolerance. Carbohydrate works out at 44.8% as fed, or 48.7% of dry matter.

Glucosamine at 0.04% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.004% are printed with figures against them, both drawn from animal tissues, and the poultry itself brings a little more of each. On a large dog in its later years that is the single most relevant line on the label, and it is good to see figures against it.

Digestion gets proper attention here. Two prebiotics are declared. Fructooligosaccharides comes in at 0.37% and mannanoligosaccharides at 0.13%, with dried beet pulp at 2.6% as the fermentable fibre beside them. Brewer's dried yeast adds B vitamins and selenium, while the omega 3s an older dog's joints and coat draw on come from fish oil.

One entry is vaguer than the rest. Poultry fat tells you the fat came from a bird without saying which, so duck or goose cannot be excluded and the source can in principle vary between batches. For most dogs that is of no consequence whatsoever, but it is the line to know about if you are working through a food trial. Moisture, by contrast, is declared at 8.0% rather than assumed, which is a small piece of honesty worth crediting, and calcium settles at 1.41% of dry matter.

Sold in 3kg, 12kg and 15kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 234 grams a day, on the standard maintenance estimate of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). A large breed senior needs a considerably bigger bowl than that, so measure to condition and adjust as their pace changes.