Eukanuba Caring Senior Small Breed review

Most adult dry foods settle in our Good band, and this one is among them. It holds that place on unshowy grounds: a genuinely meaty declaration for a cereal based kibble and protein at 33.7% of dry matter. Estimated carbohydrate is 37.0% of dry matter, where the typical adult dry food runs 46.2%. The cereal list is what stops it climbing higher, since maize, wheat, barley, oats and rice tell a reader very little about the quality of what went in. The fresh chicken also gives up most of its declared weight in the oven.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (31% including chicken 22%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), fresh chicken (15%), maize, wheat, barley, poultry fat, oats, rice, dried beet pulp (3.5%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.35%), fructooligosaccharides (0.51%, a natural prebiotic), dried whole egg, 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%).

Carrying the load is dried chicken and turkey at 31%. Dried meat arrives without its water, so it stays roughly where it is in the finished kibble. Fresh chicken at 15% contributes less than its position suggests, most of that weight being water that leaves during cooking. Between them they push protein to 33.7% of dry matter, a strong figure for a food built on cereal. The label also names the dried pair as where the glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine occur naturally.

The cereal side is broad, with maize, wheat, barley, oats and rice all taking a turn. Barley and oats do the most good of the five, with fibre and a steadier release of starch. Maize is there to hold the kibble together. Keep wheat in mind. In dogs that do not get on with cereals, wheat is the usual suspect behind a grumbling gut or a scratchy coat.

Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.35% is an unglamorous inclusion with a clear purpose. It ties up the calcium in saliva so plaque has a harder time setting into tartar, which is exactly the fight most small older dogs are quietly losing at the back of the mouth.

The joint support is declared outright, with glucosamine at 0.04% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.004%. Those are small numbers, and they read as steady daily background instead of treatment, with the meat expected to do the rest. Fish oil sits lower down as the omega 3 source and dried whole egg adds a little protein that an older dog uses easily. The fat, though, is only ever called poultry fat, so the bird behind it is never pinned down.

Two prebiotics work on digestion, fructooligosaccharides at 0.51% alongside mannanoligosaccharides at 0.13%. Fibre comes as dried beet pulp at 3.5%. Crude fibre still finishes at 2.3% of dry matter, so this is a gently fibred recipe and not a bulky one, which suits a small appetite.

Every mineral in the supporting panel is dosed in print: zinc at 62.5mg, iron at 50mg, manganese at 10mg, copper at 8mg and iodine at 1.5mg per kilo of food. They come as sulphates, not as the chelated forms some makers choose. Vitamin E at 250mg, beta-carotene at 5mg and L-carnitine at 50mg round it off. L-carnitine is an amino acid that has a hand in how a dog's body works through fat.

Three bag sizes are listed, running from 3kg up to 12kg.

The label's own guide asks 115 to 130 grams a day for an 8kg dog, which is squarely the size this recipe is drawn for. Weigh the portion, do not eyeball it, and give the waistline the last word.