Lily's Kitchen Senior Recipe for Older Dogs review

This recipe settles in our Excellent band, a shade clear of the wet shelf's middle, which occupies the same band. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding and the panel shows why. Protein converts to 50.0% of dry matter and fat to 25.0%, while the estimated carbohydrate stops at 10.0% where the middle of the adult wet category runs at 15.8%. Protein and processing joins transparency at Outstanding, and value comes back Excellent. Nothing here is clever for the sake of it. The meat share is high, the label is honest about it, and the placing simply follows.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (60%), Cranberries (4%), Parsnips (3%), Carrots (2%), Sugar Snap Peas (1%), Minerals, Kelp, Salmon Oil (0.1%), Green Lipped Mussel (0.1%), FOS (0.1%), MOS (0.1%), Goldenrod, Nettles, Aniseed, Rosehips, Marigold Flowers, Cleavers, Chickweed, Alfalfa, Milk Thistle, Dandelion Root, Burdock Root, Celery Seeds.

Turkey at 60% is the whole story of this recipe. The label lists it plainly, with no mention of meal or derivative, and that usually points to the fresh form. Makers reach for turkey when they want something lighter on fat than chicken while keeping the protein up. That converts here to 50.0% of dry matter. For a wet food it is a strong reading, and it is why an older dog gets a lot of nourishment out of a modest bowl.

The plant side is deliberately small. Cranberries at 4% bring vitamin C and antioxidants, carrots at 2% bring vitamin A and a little soluble fibre once cooked, and parsnips at 3% and sugar snap peas at 1% round it out. Between them they leave the estimated carbohydrate at 2.0% of the recipe as fed, which is very low even by wet standards.

FOS and MOS appear at 0.1% each. Both are prebiotics. In the large intestine they feed the useful bacteria, and that makes them a sensible pairing in a recipe pointed at older digestions. Kelp sits alongside them as a natural source of iodine and trace minerals.

Salmon oil and green lipped mussel are the two entries an owner of an older dog will look for, and both are printed at 0.1%. That is a gesture, not a programme. If your dog is already taking something for stiff joints, keep them on it, with this tin as the dinner beneath.

The long tail of goldenrod, nettles, rosehips, marigold flowers and the rest is the Lily's Kitchen signature, sitting at trace level and adding character to the bowl. Micronutrition comes from a mineral premix and from the turkey itself, which is how a label this short can still be a complete food.

£11.33 a kilo, in a single 150g size.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at around £10.57 a day. That is roughly 933 grams, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Wet food is light on calories per gram, so the daily weight looks large on paper.