Growling Tums Gourmet Senior Light: Turkey review

This one earns its place in our Good band, the same band the wider adult dry shelf works out at. Protein and processing and value both read Good. Transparency reads Outstanding, with nutritional balance at Average. The label names its species and prints the fresh and dried split. Joint supplements and prebiotics are given as doses, and the list stays short enough to take in on the shelf. Moisture is left undeclared here, so the dry matter figures below start from the 8% that a dry kibble usually carries. Worth knowing if you compare the table with another bag.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 50% (including Freshly Prepared Turkey 27%, Dried Turkey 21% & Turkey Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (16%), Potato, Peas (8%), Beet Pulp, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Cranberry (0.2%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

Turkey reaches 50% across three entries, dried turkey at 21%, freshly prepared turkey at 27% and turkey stock at 2%. Most of a fresh meat's water goes in the oven. That leaves the dried 21% doing the most work in the finished kibble. Turkey is a sensible bird for a light recipe. It is leaner than chicken and lower in calories.

Sweet potato at 16% is a modest lead for a starch, with potato and peas at 8% behind it and no cereal anywhere. That restraint is what the recipe is built on. Carbohydrate still converts to 47.9% of dry matter, but protein comes through at 29.3% and fat at only 9.8%. That is the shape you want for a dog eating to lose weight.

L-Carnitine at 500 mg per kilo is the entry that separates this from a plain senior food. It is an amino acid, and it plays a central role in how the body burns fat. That is why lighter diets so often carry it. A printed dose tells you more than the word light on the front of a bag.

The joint supplements are dosed too: glucosamine at 170 mg per kilo, MSM at 170 mg and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg. Evidence for them is mixed rather than conclusive, but an older dog carrying extra weight is precisely the animal whose joints are under pressure, so seeing them measured out is welcome.

FOS at 96 mg and MOS at 24 mg per kilo are prebiotics for the bacteria in the large intestine, linseed brings plant omega 3, and cranberry at 0.2% is the flourish. The trace minerals are all dosed: zinc at 50 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg, copper at 15 mg, iodine at 1 mg and selenium at 0.3 mg per kilo. Vitamin E comes in at 95 IU.

£5.00 a kilo, sold in 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition eats about 245 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £1.22 a day. A dog being fed down to a target weight should sit below that, so start from the label's table and trim to the waistline.