Lifestage Senior Grain Free Wet review

This tin reaches our Excellent band, level with the middle of the wet shelf, and it gets there on a straightforward recipe with nothing clever about it. Turkey at 60% is most of the story. Protein converts to 35.7% of dry matter and fat to 25.0%, every ingredient on the list is a thing you could point at, and there is no category term to take on trust.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (60%), Potatoes (26%), Carrots (5%), Peas (5%), Minerals, Salmon Oil, Sunflower Oil, Dried Kelp, Basil, Vitamins

Turkey at 60% leads, and turkey is a good choice for the dog this tin is aimed at. It is easy to digest, it goes down well with dogs that have become choosy, and it carries less fat than most of the alternatives, which matters for an older dog doing shorter walks.

Potatoes at 26% are the second big number and the one that shapes the analysis. Potato is predominantly starch, and while it is a calm, well tolerated carbohydrate, at better than a quarter of the tin it is doing the job a cereal would do in another recipe. That is the trade this tin makes to stay grain free, and it shows up as an estimated 25.0% of dry matter as carbohydrate.

Carrots and peas at 5% each are genuinely useful rather than decorative. Carrots bring vitamin A and soluble fibre, with antioxidants alongside, and whole peas bring a broad spread of vitamins and minerals along with more fibre. Both carry a declared percentage, and few labels bother to do that so far down the list.

Salmon oil and sunflower oil follow, both named to their source, with dried kelp and basil at trace level. Kelp is mainly there for iodine. The salmon oil is small but it is the entry that stops this being a fish free tin.

The added panel covers vitamins A, D3 and E with a B complex. Zinc and manganese follow, then selenium and iodine, all in their usual salts. The doses do not reach us, so the panel is described here and not quoted. Nothing on the list is aimed specifically at an ageing dog, so the senior label is describing the texture and the meat rather than a therapeutic addition.

Moisture sits at 72.0%, which for an older dog that has become a casual drinker is quietly one of the most useful things a wet tin does.

£3.80 a kilo, in 395 g tins sold seven to a pack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would get through roughly 700 grams a day, or about £2.66, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). An older dog taking things gently will usually need less, so read that figure as the top of the range.