Harley & Marley Senior Dogs & Weight Management review

This one lands in our Excellent band. The typical adult dry food sits a band lower, in Good, and the distance comes from a genuinely fish-led recipe with no cleverness in the small print. Nutritional balance reads Average rather than better, which is the tapioca and the pea starch showing up, while transparency reads Outstanding, value Excellent and protein and processing Good. For a food asked to keep an older dog comfortable rather than to top a table, that is a sensible set of results.

Ingredients, as declared: 61.5% Fish (15% Fresh Haddock, 15% Fresh Hake, 14% Dehydrated Trout, 14% Dehydrated Fish, 2.5% Fish Oil, 1% Fish Digest), Sweet Potato, Potato, Tapioca, Pea Starch, Peas, Beet Pulp, Sunflower Oil, Minerals, Brewer's Yeast. Pea Fibre, Dehydrated Kale, Yeast Extract, Chicory Inulin, Yucca Schidigera, Dehydrated Turmeric, Dehydrated Blueberries, Dehydrated Broccoli, Dried Spinach, Dried Rosehip, Dried Carrot.

Every part of the 61.5% fish share is itemised: 15% fresh haddock, 15% fresh hake, 14% dehydrated trout, 14% dehydrated fish, with 2.5% fish oil and 1% fish digest. Fresh fish comes in wet and the oven takes that back out, so the two dehydrated entries carry most of the finished protein. That converts to 28.7% of dry matter.

Trout is named even in its dehydrated form, which is more than most makers bother with, and haddock and hake lead the fresh side. The second dehydrated entry stays generic, so three quarters of the species are pinned and one quarter is not.

The weight side of the brief is handled with fibre. Beet pulp and pea fibre push crude fibre to 5.5%, or 6.2% of dry matter, and fat is held at 9.0%. Energy comes out at 363 kcal per 100g. The carbohydrate estimate is 37.0%, or 41.5% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. The lighter bowl has not been bought with extra starch.

Ash is the figure to notice, at 12.0% as fed and 13.5% of dry matter, with calcium working out at 1.46% of dry matter. Ash is the mineral fraction, and it runs high in recipes built on dehydrated fish because bone comes along with the flesh. For a healthy older dog it reads as normal for the construction. Where a diet is restricted, it is a figure to put in front of a vet.

The supporting cast is chosen with an older dog in mind. Chicory inulin feeds the bacteria a gut already has, and brewer's yeast supplies B vitamins. Yucca schidigera takes the edge off the smell at the other end. Dehydrated kale, blueberries, broccoli, spinach, carrot, rosehip and turmeric sit at trace level as the label's flourish.

The additives are dosed in print, and taurine at 500 mg per kilo stands out on a senior food given its long association with heart muscle. Zinc arrives twice, 70 mg as the oxide and 30 mg in a chelated form that is generally absorbed more easily. Alongside it sit iron at 75 mg, manganese at 40 mg, copper at 7 mg, iodine at 1.50 mg and selenium at 0.20 mg.

£2.33 a kilo, and both the 3kg and the 12kg bag carry that same figure.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 231 grams a day here, on the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That lands at roughly £0.54 a day. On the label the guide runs 180 to 360 grams for dogs from 10kg to 20kg, and your dog's waistline will settle where in that range it belongs.