Iams Advanced Nutrition Senior Large Breed review

Our scoring lands this in the Good band, which is also where the typical adult dry food ends up. An older big dog moving onto it is not being asked to settle for less than the market average.

Construction is what holds it there, and there is nothing worrying about the list. The animal content is mostly a dried meal with a fresh top-up that cooks away, which puts protein at 27.2% of dry matter. The cereals carry enough of the rest to push carbohydrate past what a dry food usually runs. Set against that, the trimmed fat level and the printed glucosamine are aimed squarely at the dog this bag names.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey 25% (including chicken 15%), barley, maize, fresh chicken (10%), maize flour, pork fat, dried beet pulp (2.5%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.35%), linseed, fructooligosaccharides (0.2%), brewer's dried yeast, glucosamine from animal tissues (0.045%).

At the head of the list sit dried chicken and turkey at 25%, chicken alone accounting for 15%, and 10% fresh chicken follows the cereals. The dried figure is the one that counts, since its water has already gone, while the fresh entry shrinks considerably in the oven. Protein still converts to 27.2% of dry matter, a good level for an older dog that needs to hold on to muscle.

Barley, maize and maize flour take up the middle of the list. Barley is the pick of them, cooking down to an easily digested grain that carries fibre and trace minerals, though anyone avoiding gluten should note it is a gluten grain. Estimated carbohydrate finishes at 52.4% of dry matter.

Fat is held to 10%, which converts to 10.9% of dry matter, and pork fat supplies it. A named animal fat is the better sort to see. For a dog whose walks are getting shorter, trimming the fat is the single most effective move a senior recipe can make.

Glucosamine from animal tissues at 0.045% is the age related addition. It is a light touch, well short of a joint supplement in its own right, and the evidence on glucosamine is genuinely mixed. Even so, a printed percentage beats what the front of a bag claims.

Behind that sit the usual house details: dried beet pulp at 2.5% for fibre, fructooligosaccharides at 0.2% as a prebiotic, brewer's dried yeast for B vitamins, and sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.35% to soften tartar. The additive panel is dosed line by line, with vitamin D3 at 1100IU per kilo, vitamin E at 135mg and zinc at 115mg.

Sold as a 12kg bag.

The label's table starts at 295 grams a day for a 25kg dog, reaches 460 grams at 45kg and tops out at 775 grams for a 90kg dog. Big dogs vary enormously at the same weight, so measure to the ribs you can feel rather than the number in the column.