Leader Senior Large Breed review

Our scoring settles this in the Good band, where most adult dry food settles as well. The reasons balance out. In its favour, the meat is named and declared in dried form at 26%, every trace mineral carries its own dose, and both joint ingredients are on the label. Pulling the other way, the fat has been cut to keep the calories down, which takes the protein and fat totals below where a lot of kibbles sit. Carbohydrate rises to an estimated 56.0% of dry matter to make up the volume. Value reads Good and transparency Excellent, with protein and processing at Average and nutritional balance at Poor. Read it as a senior recipe and not as a general purpose adult food, and that is a fair result, because the gentleness is deliberate and it is the whole point.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Chicken (26%), Brown Rice, White Rice, Chicken Fat, Dehulled Oats, Whole Linseed, Minerals, Alfalfa, Hydrolysed Liver Protein, Yeast Extract, Chicory Inulin, Dried Cranberries, Dried Beetroot, Rosemary, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Ginger, Turmeric, Chondroitin Sulphate, Yucca schidigera.

Dehydrated chicken at 26% is the anchor. Being dried already, it holds its weight through baking, so the declared figure is close to the real contribution, which is not always true of a headline meat percentage. Protein lands at 23.3% of dry matter and fat at 11.1%, both modest by kibble standards and both deliberate.

That lean fat figure is the whole design. A senior large dog that has slowed down but still eats with enthusiasm puts weight on quickly, and every extra kilo tells on hips and elbows. Taking the fat out is the simplest way to lift calories out of the bowl without shrinking it, which matters enormously to a dog that measures dinner by how full the dish looks.

The rest is carried by dehulled oats and rice, brown and white. Carbohydrate is estimated at 56.0% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical of an adult dry food. That is the trade you make when the fat comes down. Oats bring soluble fibre and a spread of trace nutrients, and crude fibre at 2.4% of dry matter keeps things moving without turning the garden into a chore.

Glucosamine hydrochloride sits ahead of the ginger and turmeric on this label, well clear of the very bottom, with chondroitin sulphate a few places later. Neither is given an amount, so read it as joint support and not a joint supplement. On a large senior it is a sensible inclusion, and it is good to see it placed where it is.

The rest of the tail is familiar and useful. Whole linseed supplies plant omega 3, alfalfa adds fibre and minerals, chicory inulin feeds the gut bacteria, and dried cranberries and beetroot bring antioxidants along with the cranberry's long standing association with urinary tract health. Rosemary is present mostly as a natural preservative, and yucca schidigera to soften what comes out the other end.

The vitamin and mineral panel is dosed in full, with vitamin A at 21,750 iu, vitamin D3 at 1,875 iu and vitamin E at 233 iu per kilo. Zinc comes in two forms, 91.0 mg as the oxide and 187.5 mg as an amino acid chelate. The chelate is the one a dog absorbs more readily. Iron sits at 229.2 mg, manganese at 65.0 mg and copper sulphate at 28.0 mg, with iodine at 2.4 mg and selenium as sodium selenite at 0.3 mg.

Two bag sizes, 2kg and 12kg, at £3.33 a kilo.

For a 15kg adult in moderate condition needing around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that is about 251 grams from the bag and £0.84 a day. A large senior weighs a good deal more than that and eats in proportion, so treat the figure as a rate and scale it up.