Eukanuba Daily Care Sensitive Joints review

Our band for this recipe is Good, and our band for the typical adult dry food is Good too, so this is an ordinary reading with nothing disappointing about it. The figures behind it are steady. Protein at 26.1% of dry matter is a shade above what a cereal based kibble usually manages. Estimated carbohydrate at 49.8% of dry matter runs a little over the 46.2% typical. The meat case rests on 24% dried chicken and turkey, with fresh chicken adding 4% on top. The joint ingredients are not the thing being measured here, so give them their due separately.

Worth saying plainly: a food does not need to top a general nutrition table to do its particular job well. Fed to a middle aged dog who has begun to stiffen, this recipe delivers exactly what its name offers.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (24% including chicken 19%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), maize, wheat, barley, pork fat, sorghum, fresh chicken (4%), dried beet pulp (2.8%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.38%), dried whole egg, fish meal, linseed, fish oil (a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids), brewer's dried yeast (a natural source of B-vitamins and selenium), fructooligosaccharides (0.27%, a natural prebiotic), methyl sulphonyl methane (0.13%), glucosamine (from animal tissues) (0.06%), chondroitin sulphate (0.006%).

The meat comes in two forms and only one of them really lasts. Dried chicken and turkey at 24% carries chicken at 19% inside it, and it goes in with its water gone, so it stays put through cooking. The fresh chicken at 4% shrinks away to very little. Protein finishes at 26.1% of dry matter, a respectable landing for a recipe of this construction. Before anything is added on top, the label credits the dried pair with naturally occurring glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine.

Four cereals fill the middle: maize, wheat, barley and sorghum. Barley brings fibre and micronutrients, sorghum is gluten free, and maize and wheat are the binding workhorses. Wheat is the entry to keep in mind, being the grain most commonly involved when a dog turns out not to tolerate cereals well.

The joint trio is the reason to pick this bag up, and it is declared outright. Glucosamine at 0.06% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.006% are the pair people reach for when cartilage is the worry. Methyl sulphonyl methane at 0.13% is a sulphur compound often included alongside them. The doses are small, as they are on most complete foods, so think of them as something the bowl does quietly every day and not a course of anything.

Omega 3 arrives from two directions, fish oil and linseed. That is a sensible way to cover it, because the marine and plant forms are not identical and a dog uses the marine one more directly. Fish meal adds dense protein alongside, dried whole egg contributes a little more, and brewer's dried yeast brings B vitamins and selenium. Dried beet pulp at 2.8% and fructooligosaccharides at 0.27% handle digestion.

Pork fat is the fat, named to the animal and not left as a category, which is more useful to a reader even though it does put pork in the bowl. The trace minerals are amino acid chelates, every one printed. Zinc runs at 62.5mg, iron at 50mg, manganese at 10mg, copper at 5mg and iodine at 1.5mg per kilo of food, with vitamin E at 250mg as the antioxidant.

A small bag and a 12kg are the two sizes listed.

Taking about 840 kcal a day as the benchmark for a 15kg adult in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), the ration works out at around 237 grams a day. For a 20kg dog the label itself asks 245 to 280 grams, and between the two guides the waistline is the better judge.