Eukanuba Caring Senior Medium Breed review

This one lands in the Good band, and the middle of the adult dry category lands there too, which makes the two directly comparable. The named meat entries at the top and a carbohydrate figure of 44.4% of dry matter, below the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, both pull in its favour. Two things hold it there: cereals running right through the recipe, and a fat entry with no species on it.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (26% including chicken 18%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), fresh chicken (17%), maize, wheat, poultry fat, oats, rice, barley, dried beet pulp (3%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.34%), dried whole egg, fructooligosaccharides (0.37%, a natural prebiotic), mannanoligosaccharides (0.13%, a natural prebiotic), glucosamine (from animal tissues) (0.04%), chondroitin sulphate (0.004%).

Opening the list is dried chicken and turkey at 26%. Chicken is broken out at 18% of it, and fresh chicken follows at 17%. In the oven the fresh meat gives back its water, so most of the protein reaching the finished kibble comes from the dried entry. Together the two still make this a properly meat-led recipe. Protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter, a strong figure for a food aimed at older dogs.

Carbohydrate settles at 40.8% as fed, or 44.4% of dry matter, and it comes from maize, wheat, oats, rice and barley. Oats and barley bring fibre and a useful range of micronutrients. Rice suits a gut that has slowed with age. Wheat is the one to keep in mind if grain has ever caused your dog problems.

No fish appears in this recipe at all. That is unusual on a senior food, and genuinely handy for a dog being kept off it. The trade is that the omega 3s an ageing joint benefits from are not being supplied by fish oil here, so a dog that leans on that support will do well with it given alongside.

Glucosamine is declared at 0.04% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.004%, both taken from animal tissues, and the poultry contributes a little more on top. Calcium works out at 1.41% of dry matter. The label declares moisture at 8.0%, so the dry matter figures here are firmer than they usually are.

The gut gets fructooligosaccharides at 0.37% and mannanoligosaccharides at 0.13%, two prebiotics, with dried beet pulp at 3% providing the fibre beside them. Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.34% works on tartar, which is worth having on an older mouth. The one loose thread is poultry fat, which names the bird family and not the bird, so duck or goose stay technically possible even though the named meats here are chicken and turkey.

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

By way of scale, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would take roughly 228 grams a day, using the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). An older dog's portion tends to drift down as their activity does, so let the ribs be the check rather than the scoop.