Eukanuba Senior Small/Medium Breed Rich in Lamb & Rice review

This one comes out in our Good band, the same band our scoring gives the typical adult dry food. The reasons are honesty and completeness rather than anything exotic. Species are named right down the list, the joint and prebiotic entries carry percentages, and the vitamin and trace element panel is dosed rather than gestured at. The analysis backs it up, with protein converting to 28.3% of dry matter and fat to 15.2%, both comfortable for an older dog with a healthy appetite. The cereals do keep carbohydrate at 47.1%, just past the adult dry average, which is where nutritional balance reads Average, while protein and processing, transparency and value all read Good.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), lamb (14%), rice (14%), maize, sorghum, barley, pork fat, dried beet pulp (2.6%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.34%), fructooligosaccharides (0.25%, a natural prebiotic), brewer's dried yeast (a natural source of B-vitamins and selenium), 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%).

The dried chicken and turkey blend that opens the list is the protein backbone, and its dried form is the reason why. It has been dried before it ever reaches the mixer, so it does not shrink during cooking the way a fresh meat entry does and it holds its place in the finished kibble. The label credits it as the natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine, a reasonable claim for meat that carries cartilage with it. The blend has no percentage against it, which is the single figure this label withholds.

Lamb at 14% gives the recipe its name and its red meat character. It is an easily digested meat with a strong smell that most dogs find hard to walk away from. For a smaller senior whose interest in food comes and goes, that counts for more than it did at three years old. Rice, also at 14%, is about the gentlest cereal for an older gut.

Maize, sorghum and barley fill in behind the rice. Barley is the most useful of them, bringing fibre and trace minerals with its starch, while sorghum and maize are plainer starches doing the structural work a kibble needs to hold together. Together the cereals put carbohydrate at 47.1% of dry matter, only just above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, which is restrained for a recipe with this many grains in it.

The senior additions are specific. Glucosamine from animal tissues is declared at 0.04% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.004%. Fructooligosaccharides at 0.25% and mannanoligosaccharides at 0.13% cover the gut from two directions. L-carnitine appears at 50mg per kilo, the entry usually chosen where lean muscle and fat handling matter. Dried beet pulp at 2.6% keeps the fibre light.

Fish oil is the omega 3 source. Marine oil hands a dog the finished forms, with no conversion from a plant version needed. That is the better arrangement for skin, coat and ageing joints alike. The recipe therefore carries fish, whatever the name on the front says. B vitamins and protein come from brewer's dried yeast and dried whole egg. Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.34% takes on the tartar. Calcium comes out at 1.63% of dry matter. Vitamin E is dosed at 250mg per kilo with zinc at 62.5mg, and tocopherol extracts at 18mg keep the fats from turning.

£3.75 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

Run the standard maintenance estimate for a 15kg adult in moderate condition, about 840 kcal a day from 110 × bodyweight^0.75, and the portion comes to roughly 232 grams, or £0.87 a day. The label's own guide asks 235 to 275 grams a day for a 20kg dog. Where the two differ, go by the waistline.