Lakes Collection Lakes Legacy High Protein Senior: Scottish Salmon review

Our scoring puts this in the Excellent band, a step above the Good band where the typical adult dry food settles. The salmon is what takes it there. Protein converts to 38.0% of dry matter, a figure most kibble never approaches, while carbohydrate stops at 35.9% against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Fat at 12.0% of dry matter keeps the energy sensible for a dog doing less. Transparency reads Outstanding and nutritional balance Excellent, with protein and processing Good and value matching the overall at Excellent. The joint supplements arrive with printed doses, exactly the sort of detail that separates a senior recipe worth buying from a senior label worth ignoring.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Salmon (35% Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon, 24.5% Dried Salmon, 3% Salmon Oil & 2.5% Salmon Gravy), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus, Tomato), Minerals, Omega 3 Supplement, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 178 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 178 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 175 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 50 mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%). *Each equivalent to 4% Fresh Ingredients

That 65% salmon is broken out in full: 35% freshly prepared Scottish salmon, 24.5% dried salmon, then 3% salmon oil and 2.5% salmon gravy. Watch the dried share. Fresh fish is mostly water and gives it up in cooking, while dried fish arrives already concentrated, and 24.5% is a substantial figure by any standard. It explains a protein reading of 38.0% of dry matter, which is where this recipe earns its name.

Salmon oil at 3% is doing something the analysis panel cannot show you. Marine omega 3s arrive ready to use, with none of the conversion step that plant sources need. They are also the fats behind comfortable joints and a coat that still shines in later life. On a food aimed at older dogs, having that oil named and measured rather than buried in a generic fat entry is worth a lot.

Sweet potato and beans do the carrying, with beet pulp for fibre behind them. Beans is the label's one unspecific entry, since the type is never given, and it brings plant protein along with its starch. The result is still a low-carbohydrate kibble at 35.9% of dry matter, so the plant side is genuinely playing a supporting role here.

The joint pack is printed as a single named line holding glucosamine at 178 mg/kg, methylsulfonylmethane at 178 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Cartilage contains glucosamine and chondroitin naturally, and they are the first two supplements an owner reaches for when an older dog stiffens up. Each one carries a figure here, so you can judge the recipe on the numbers.

The dried superfood blend brings dill, spinach, fennel, asparagus and tomato, each quoted as equivalent to 4% fresh ingredients, so the dried amount in the bag is smaller than that figure sounds. Fructooligosaccharides at 175 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 50 mg/kg support digestion, and olive extract sits at 0.01% as an antioxidant. The recipe holds no barley, no rice, no maize and no wheat.

£7.50 a kilo, in 2kg and 12kg bags.

£1.79 a day for a 15kg adult of moderate build, on about 239 grams, assuming 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The bag suggests 145 to 240 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so the two sit close together and the waistline is the tiebreaker.