Happy Dog Fit & Well Senior review

Our bands put this one in the Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, and the reading is driven by construction. Rice, maize and barley take the leading plant slots, several animal entries carry no species, and both the protein and the fat sit low. The low fat is entirely deliberate, and a senior with a slowing metabolism is exactly the dog who benefits from it. Treat the band as a comment on the ingredients list rather than a warning about the meal in front of your dog.

Ingredients, as declared: Rice, animal proteins* (9 % poultry, 4 % lamb), maize, maize flour, barley, fish meal (4.5 %, of which 50 % salmon meal), oils and fats, meat meal, hydrolysed protein, beet pulp* (desugared), apple pomace*, potassium chloride, yeasts*, sodium chloride, seaweed*, linseed (0.15 %), dried whole egg (0.12 %), chicory root* (extract) (0.05 %), milk thistle, mussel meat* (0.02 %), yeasts* (extract), artichoke, dandelion, ginger (0.015 %), birch leaves, stinging nettle, camomile, coriander, rosemary, sage, liquorice root, thyme, (total dried herbs: 0.15 %). *dried.

Rice opening the list tells you what kind of food this is. It is a gentle, easily digested cereal and it sets the tone for a recipe built around an older, less busy dog. The animal proteins follow, with poultry at 9% and lamb at 4%, both marked as dried. Those percentages are counted once the water has gone.

Fish meal at 4.5%, half of it salmon meal, is the marine omega 3 source and one of the better entries here. Much further down, mussel meat appears at 0.02%, traditionally included with ageing joints in mind. At that level it is a gesture, not a dose.

The senior thinking shows in the additives. L-carnitine at 200 mg per kilo helps the body move fatty acids into cells that will burn them. Vitamin C joins the panel at 20 mg. Chicory root extract at 0.05% supplies inulin, a prebiotic fibre for the large intestine. Fat is held at 10%. That is about right for an older dog whose days are quieter than they were.

Where this label stays vague, it stays vague completely. Poultry gives the family and stops short of the bird. Meat meal names neither the animal nor the cut, hydrolysed protein names nothing at all, and oils and fats could be from any plant or any animal. None of these is alarming on its own and all of them are common in this part of the shelf, but together they mean the recipe cannot carry a strict elimination trial.

Carbohydrate is estimated at 57.1% of dry matter against 46.2% for a typical adult dry food, and protein converts to 22.8%. The botanical tail, totalling 0.15% of dried herbs, runs from milk thistle and dandelion through birch leaves and nettle to camomile and thyme, with linseed at 0.15% and dried whole egg at 0.12% beside them. It is there for the character of the recipe rather than for anything you could weigh.

Pack sizes are 1kg, 12kg and a twin pack of two 12kg bags.

Taking the standard maintenance estimate of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 234 grams a day. The label's own table asks 200 grams a day for a dog of that weight and 250 grams for a 20kg dog, so use your dog's shape to settle any difference between the two.