Josera Mini Senior review

Mini Senior reads Average on our scale, a step below the Good band most adult dry foods reach, and disclosure is what keeps it that close. Naming chicken as a share of the poultry protein, printing the rice percentage and putting a figure against the salmon oil all count for something. Transparency reads Good where protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average. The analysis backs it up: protein at 26.1% of dry matter is respectable in a senior recipe, and calcium at 1.03% sits comfortably too.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried poultry protein 25.0% (including 40% chicken), rice 25%, whole maize, beet fibres, poultry fat, hydrolysed poultry protein, minerals, salmon oil 0.5%, ground chicory root (natural source of inulin), dried protein of New Zealand green-lipped mussel (Perna canaliculus).

Dried poultry protein at 25.0% leads, and the label does something most avoid by telling you 40% of it is chicken. The word dried tells you the water is out, so that quarter of the recipe is concentrated meat protein. Protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter.

The starch comes from rice at 25%, with whole maize behind it. Both are cooked cereals a dog handles easily, and maize brings along a little more protein and linoleic acid than rice does. Carbohydrate finishes at 52.0% of dry matter, above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Two cereals sitting that high on a list will do that.

The senior touches are small but sensible. Dried green-lipped mussel protein is the joint ingredient, salmon oil at 0.5% is the marine omega source, and ground chicory root supplies inulin, the prebiotic fibre an ageing gut appreciates. Beet fibre keeps things regular alongside them.

Calcium works out at 1.03% of dry matter, which an adult or older dog takes in its stride. Fat is kept moderate at 13.0% of dry matter, and that suits a small dog whose exercise has eased off without leaving them short of energy.

Hydrolysed poultry protein appears further down, broken into small fragments that are easy to absorb and appetising to a dog whose interest in dinner has turned selective. The added fat is poultry fat, and like the protein above it, it names no species.

£5.90 a kilo, sold in a 3 kg bag.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 238 grams a day, which lands at £1.40, using 840 kcal a day as the maintenance figure (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That is a guide for a far bigger dog than this food is aimed at, so scale it down for a small senior and let the waistline decide.