Exe Valley Essential Range Senior: Chicken review

This lands in our Good band, the same place the typical adult dry food sits. The label explains why: maize takes first position, chicken meal follows at 26%, and estimated carbohydrate converts to 50.0% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical. Set against that, protein holds up well for a senior recipe at 27.2% of dry matter, the joint pair is written in rather than hinted at, and every vitamin and mineral is dosed in print. This is a modest food doing a clear job, not a compromised one.

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, Chicken Meal (26%), Barley, Rice (11%), Oats, Chicken Gravy, Linseed (2%), Beet Pulp (2%), Poultry Fat, Seaweed (0.2%), Glucosamine (0.1%), Chondroitin (0.05%), Chicory (0.01%).

Maize leads, and it is a perfectly serviceable cereal for a dog, cooked and ground so that it digests easily and bringing energy and a little protein with it. It does mean the plant side takes top billing on this label, with barley, rice at 11% and oats behind it, and estimated carbohydrate finishing at 50.0% of dry matter.

Chicken meal at 26% is the animal share. Meal is a useful thing to see on a senior food: its water has already gone before it reaches the mixer, and the declared 26% stays close to what is left in the kibble. Protein comes out at 25% as fed, 27.2% of dry matter, a sensible level for an older dog whose muscle needs the support.

Poultry fat supplies the added fat in place of a plant oil, and it is a fat dogs genuinely enjoy. The word poultry covers a family and not a species, taking in chicken, turkey, duck and goose, so this entry is not pinned down the way the chicken meal is. On a healthy older dog that is a footnote; on a dog you are trying to keep to a single bird it is the sticking point.

The senior thinking arrives late on the list, just where you would expect it. Glucosamine at 0.1% and chondroitin at 0.05% are the standard joint pair, seaweed at 0.2% brings iodine, chicory at 0.01% supplies the inulin that feeds gut bacteria, and linseed at 2% adds plant omega 3. Beet pulp at 2% handles the fibre, which lands at 4.3% of dry matter.

The panel is printed in full, with iron at 80mg, zinc at 40mg, manganese at 25mg, copper at 13mg, iodine at 1.4mg and selenium at 0.15mg per kilo. Alongside them sit vitamin A at 12000IU, vitamin D3 at 800IU and vitamin E at 60mg. Calcium works out at 2.17% of dry matter and ash is modest at 7%, which is what a single meat meal doing the animal work tends to produce.

£3.17 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 252 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £0.80 a day. Older dogs vary a great deal in what they burn, so let your dog's shape guide the scoop.