Flourish Grain Free Senior/Light: Trout and Salmon review

This one arrives at Good quietly, and that is where the middle of the adult dry category sits too. Half the recipe is declared as named fish, and the fresh, dried, oil and stock shares are each printed on their own. Calcium settles at a comfortable 1.09% of dry matter, and the added minerals are dosed one by one.

The counterweight is the plant side. Carbohydrate converts to 51.6% of dry matter, above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, and two plant proteins help the protein figure along. For an older or lighter feeding dog that is a sensible shape for a recipe to take, and it does not undo the fish work at the top of the list.

Ingredients, as declared: Trout & Salmon 50% (including Freshly Prepared Trout 30%, Dried Salmon 11%, Freshly Prepared Salmon 4%, Salmon Oil 3%, Salmon Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (24%), Potato, Peas (6%), Beet Pulp, Pea Protein, Linseed, Potato Protein, Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Asparagus (0.3%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

Behind the 50% fish headline sit five entries: freshly prepared trout at 30%, dried salmon at 11%, freshly prepared salmon at 4%, then salmon oil at 3% with salmon stock at 2%. Fresh fish takes a great deal of water into the oven and does not bring it out. So the 11% dried salmon holds a bigger share of the finished kibble than the list would have you think. Protein finishes at 27.2% of dry matter, gentle by design for a dog that is slowing down.

Trout and salmon are both oily fish, and the 3% salmon oil is the part worth noticing. Marine omega 3 arrives in the form a dog uses directly, with no conversion step of the kind plant sources need. That is why an oily fish recipe often shows in a coat sooner than a seed based one. Linseed appears further down as a second omega source.

Beet pulp handles the fibre. Sweet potato at 24% binds it, with potato and peas at 6% behind. The grain free promise is kept from top to bottom, and no cereal turns up at any point.

Two entries soften the picture: pea protein and potato protein. Both are by-products of processing and both are there to lift the protein figure without adding more fish. They are no trouble in a recipe with this much declared fish above them, but they do mean the protein number on the panel is not purely marine.

The senior and light thinking is backed by printed doses. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane arrive at 170 mg/kg each, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. L-Carnitine at 480 mg per kilo helps the body run on its own fat stores. FOS at 96 mg/kg with MOS at 24 mg/kg feed the gut. Asparagus at 0.3% is the label's flourish and nothing more.

One gap in the small print is worth naming. The trace element panel gives zinc at 65 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 1 mg per kilo, and no selenium figure is printed. Selenium is required in a complete food, so it is almost certainly in the mineral premix, but the label stops short of telling you how much.

£4 a kilo, sold in a 15kg bag.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition comes to roughly 247 grams a day, or about £0.99 a day. The basis is around 840 kcal a day, which is 110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate. Let the waistline settle the portion in the end.