Lakes Collection Lakes Established Hypoallergenic Senior: Turkey review

Our scoring puts this in the Average band, a step under where the middle of the adult dry shelf falls, so read it as a steady everyday food rather than a showpiece. The arithmetic behind that placement is easy to follow: turkey accounts for 26% of the list, cereal accounts for far more, and protein finishes at 21.7% of dry matter with carbohydrate at 58.8%. Transparency reads Outstanding and protein and processing Average, with the cereal load taking nutritional balance down to Poor. What the placement does not capture is how much the small print gives away. The joint supplements each carry a printed figure, the prebiotics do too, and the animal protein never wanders off turkey, which is usually the first thing an owner of an older dog goes looking for.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 26% (Including Dried Turkey 17%, Freshly Prepared Turkey 5%, Turkey Fat 2% & Turkey Gravy 2%), Brown Rice (23%), White Rice (23%), Oats (18%), Beet Pulp, Linseed, Alfalfa, Minerals, Seaweed, Omega 3 Supplement, FOS (970 mg/kg), Chicory Extract (0.05%), Yucca Extract (190 mg/kg), Dandelion, Glucosamine (178 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (178 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/ kg). No Added Artificial Colours, Flavours or Preservatives. Naturally preserved using rosemary extract.

That 26% turkey headline is 17% dried and 5% freshly prepared, with turkey fat and turkey gravy at 2% apiece. The order is the useful part. The oven keeps most of the water that fresh meat brings. Leading with the dried form therefore keeps more of the declared meat in the finished kibble. Protein settles at 21.7% of dry matter, gentle for a kibble and about what a rice-based recipe tends to manage.

Both rices are at 23%, the brown and the white, with oats at 18% behind them. Rice is about as undemanding a cereal as a dog gets, and oats bring dietary fibre along with manganese, selenium and a spread of B vitamins. They are also the reason carbohydrate reaches 58.8% of dry matter, so the plant side is supplying most of the energy in this bowl.

Beet pulp, linseed and alfalfa follow the cereals. The omega source here is linseed, and its omega 3 arrives in the plant form. Turning it into the skin-active versions takes a dog longer than pulling them straight from fish, so allow a coat weeks to answer. Seaweed sits further down as a broad mineral source, iodine included, which is exactly why it is used at the small level it is.

The supporting entries all arrive with numbers attached: FOS at 970 mg/kg, chicory extract at 0.05% and yucca extract at 190 mg/kg, with dandelion alongside them. Both FOS and chicory are food for the bacteria a healthy colon depends on. Yucca has long been used to tame the odour at the other end. None of this is doing heavy lifting, but printing the doses is a habit worth rewarding.

The joint package is the part of this label worth reading twice. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane both appear at 178 mg/kg, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Each figure is printed in the ingredients, not left to a badge on the front of the bag. On a food sold for older dogs, that level of detail is exactly what you want to find.

Rosemary extract handles the preserving, and it is a natural antioxidant that holds off rancidity. Artificial colours, flavours and preservatives are all declared absent on the label.

Sold in 1.5kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 246 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 150 to 250 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg. Judge the spot inside that span by the waistline.