Hero by Asda Senior Dry review

This one settles in our Average band, and a label that keeps its cards close is the reason. Cereals, vegetables, oils and fats and derivatives of vegetable origin all appear without a named source, and the meat is a category rather than an animal, so a reader has very little to verify. Naming more is most of what lifts a typical adult dry food into our Good band.

None of that means an older dog will do badly out of this bowl. The analysis is steady, the joint pair and the L-carnitine are printed rather than implied, and the energy density is pitched sensibly for a dog who has started taking the shorter route home.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals (4% Rice in Rice Component), Meat and Animal Derivatives (4% Chicken in Chicken component), Vegetables (4% Peas in Pea component), Oils and Fats, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals, Chicory Root (0.1%), Glucosamine (0.03%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.01%), Total Meat and Animal derivatives 24%, Chicken component typically 30% (of which 4% Chicken), Rice component typically 30%, Pea component typically 70% of product

Meat and animal derivatives at 24% is the meat entry, and the term covers the fleshy parts and by-products of slaughtered land animals without saying which animal or which cut. Chicken is the only species the label commits to. Cereals, vegetables and derivatives of vegetable origin work the same way, which lets a recipe follow whatever the market offers from batch to batch.

The senior thinking is in the small print. Joints that start to complain are the reason owners reach for glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate. Here they are declared as percentages, 0.03% and 0.01%, and that beats a vague mention on the front. Both are gentle doses. If your vet has recommended a dedicated joint supplement, these are helpful background and no substitute for it.

L-carnitine at 30 mg/kg is the other addition worth naming. The body uses it to move fatty acids into cells to be burned for energy. That is its usual job in senior and lighter recipes. Vitamin E is lifted to 140 mg/kg here and does the antioxidant work.

Protein converts to 22.8% of dry matter and fat to 9.2%, both gentle. Carbohydrate is estimated at 55.0% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food. Energy comes in at 318 kcal per 100g. An older dog carrying a bit too much will do well on figures like these, provided the portion is measured out.

Chicory root at 0.1% brings inulin, a prebiotic fibre that suits an ageing gut. A printed dose per kilo sits beside each trace mineral: zinc 40 mg, iron 40 mg, manganese 30 mg, copper 8 mg, iodine 2 mg and selenium 0.1 mg. Vitamin A is at 12000 IU and vitamin D3 at 1200 IU. They come as oxides and sulphates, the standard inorganic forms, not the chelates some recipes choose for absorption.

£1.19 a kilo, sold in a 2.5kg bag.

Working from around 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult in steady condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that is roughly 264 grams and £0.31 of food a day. The bag's own chart puts a dog between 10kg and 20kg on 200 to 360 grams, so trust the ribs ahead of the table.