Eukanuba Thriving Mature Medium Breed review

In band terms this reads as an ordinary adult dry food, finishing in the Good band that also holds the category midpoint, with transparency reading Outstanding and protein and processing and nutritional balance each Average. What holds it there is a familiar picture: cereals do a good deal of the carrying, and the added fat is named only by family. The meat entries are declared properly, and their chicken share is printed on the label. Of the three Thriving Mature sizes this is the middle one on both protein and fat. The maker declares moisture at 8.0%, so the dry matter figures here rest on a real number.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (22% including chicken 16%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), fresh chicken (19%), maize, wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, dried beet pulp (2.9%), poultry fat, chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.33%), fructooligosaccharides (0.24%, a natural prebiotic), dried whole egg, glucosamine (from animal tissues) (0.04%).

Putting dried chicken and turkey at 22% first is the right way to lead a kibble. Dried meat went in without its water and stays roughly where the list puts it. The chicken share of that mix is printed at 16%, and fresh chicken adds another 19% before the oven takes most of its moisture away. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and fat to 13.0%, both comfortably respectable on a bag written for older dogs.

Maize, wheat, barley, oats and sorghum make up the plant side. Barley and oats bring fibre and micronutrients and digest well once cooked, sorghum behaves much like maize while being gluten free, and wheat is the entry owners of an itchy dog usually want to spot. Carbohydrate is 44.7% as fed and 48.6% of dry matter, close to the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, so the starch load here is unremarkable rather than heavy.

Joint support comes as glucosamine from animal tissues at 0.04%. The label also names the dried chicken and turkey as a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine. It is a light touch and no therapeutic dose. Having it in print is more than a good many senior foods manage.

Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.33% joins the minerals to help slow tartar. Dried beet pulp at 2.9% carries the fibre, and fructooligosaccharides at 0.24% are the declared prebiotic. Dried whole egg finishes the list, a genuinely high quality protein even in the small amount its position implies.

The full mineral panel is dosed on the label, with zinc at 62.5 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 10 mg, copper at 8 mg and iodine at 1.5 mg per kilo. Vitamin E sits at 250 mg, beta carotene at 5 mg and L-carnitine at 50 mg. These are sulphate forms rather than the chelates used in the Special Care recipes. The one entry that tells you nothing is poultry fat, which could come from any domestic bird, and it is worth reading as such if you are tracking down a sensitivity.

Three bag sizes are listed, 3kg, 12kg and 15kg.

A 15kg adult in moderate condition would take roughly 240 grams a day here, working from a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The waistline is the check that settles it.