Eukanuba Grain Free Senior Small/Medium Breed Rich in Ocean Fish review

Read the band on its own and it says middling: our scoring places this recipe in our Average band, and the typical adult dry food sits one step higher. Read the label underneath and the picture flatters it. Fish meal at 31% is the largest single entry, and protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter. Carbohydrate lands at 44.3% where adult dry food usually runs 46.2%, and the additive panel is dosed line by line. A plant base still takes up a sizeable share of the bowl, and the label never pins the fish to a species, which is what holds it there. Protein and processing reads Poor, nutritional balance Good and transparency Excellent. For a small or medium senior on fish, this is a stronger bowl than the band on its own suggests.

Ingredients, as declared: fish meal (31%), dried sweet potatoes (20%), whole peas, dried potatoes, pork fat, sunflower oil, fish gravy, dried beet pulp (3%), minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.39%), fructooligosaccharides (0.29%, a natural prebiotic), mannanoligosaccharides (0.15%, a natural prebiotic), glucosamine (from animal tissues) (0.045%), chondroitin sulphate (0.0045%).

Fish meal at 31% is the entry everything else is built around. It goes into the mixer already dried. A fresh meat figure shrinks as its water leaves, but this percentage largely survives into the finished kibble. The result is protein at 30.4% of dry matter, a properly meaty figure for a kibble, with fat at 15.2% behind it. Enough marine oil comes along with the fish to keep an older coat in condition.

The one thing left open is the species. Ocean fish covers a wide range and the label does not narrow it down, so a dog that turns out to suit one fish and not another cannot be matched precisely from this ingredients list. For the great majority of dogs it makes no practical difference at all.

Age shows up in the small print. Glucosamine from animal tissues sits at 0.045% with chondroitin sulphate at 0.0045% beside it. L-carnitine is dosed at 100mg per kilo, the entry usually chosen where an older dog's fat handling and lean muscle are the concern. Taurine at 500mg is in the panel as well. Seafood happens to be rich in it, and it usually goes in for the sake of the heart.

Gut support is doubled up. Two prebiotics share the job: fructooligosaccharides at 0.29% out of plants, and mannanoligosaccharides at 0.15% out of yeast cell walls. Both feed the friendly bacteria that keep an older digestion predictable. The fibre here is dried beet pulp at 3%, deliberately kept light.

Dried sweet potato at 20% sits at the head of the plant base, with whole peas and dried potato after it and no cereal in the recipe. It carries less of the load here than in many grain-free foods, with carbohydrate estimated at 44.3% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Pork fat and sunflower oil are both named to source. Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.39% keeps tartar off teeth that have already had a long innings.

Sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

On the standard maintenance maths, about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75), a daily portion works out near 234 grams. The label's own guide asks 240 to 275 grams a day for a 20kg dog, so use whichever leaves the waistline where you want it.