More Senior review

This settles in our Good band, alongside the greater part of the adult dry shelf. Senior recipes often read that way, because the things that lift a food in our scoring, dense meat and lean carbohydrate, are the very things a senior formula deliberately eases off. Protein at 27.2% of dry matter and fat at 14.7% are steady rather than showy, and protein and processing and nutritional balance each read Average, with transparency Outstanding and value Good. The label puts its real effort into the joint and carnitine dosing instead. For an older dog that has always eaten this sort of food, that is a reasonable set of priorities.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (20.3%), Rice, Chicken meal (12%), Oats, Whole Maize, Beet Pulp, Potato Protein, Chicken Fat, Salmon Oil (2%), Chicken Digest, Linseed, Dried Egg, Brewers Yeast, Minerals, L-Carnitine (1200mg/kg), Glucosamine (1000mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (1000mg/kg), MSM (1000mg/kg), MOS (1000mg/kg), FOS (1000mg/kg), Rosemary Extract (150mg/kg), Yucca Extract (100mg/kg), Marigold Meal (50mg/kg), Citrus Extract (50mg/kg)

Fresh chicken opens at 20.3% and chicken meal follows at 12%, with rice between them. Meal is chicken that has already lost its water, and the fresh chicken shrinks hard in the oven. That makes 12% the honest measure of the concentrated meat here. Protein still reads 27.2% of dry matter, a sensible level for a dog holding on to muscle it already has.

Three cereals share the carbohydrate load, rice ahead of oats and whole maize, and the estimate comes out at 46.1% of dry matter. Oats earn their place: they cook soft, most dogs digest them easily, and they carry fibre and micronutrients of their own. Beet pulp adds more, taking crude fibre to 3.8% of dry matter.

Potato protein sits just after the beet pulp. Potato processing leaves it behind and manufacturers use it to lift a protein total. On quality, and on how much of it a dog can actually use, meat protein is ahead. On a food for older dogs that is worth a moment's thought, since an ageing dog gets the most from protein it can absorb easily.

Joint support and weight support are the two things this label concentrates on. The label prints glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate and MSM at 1000 mg/kg apiece, with L-carnitine at 1200 mg/kg to help an older metabolism keep turning fat into energy.

The omega 3s come from two directions, salmon oil at 2% for the marine form and linseed for the plant form. Chicken fat and chicken digest do the palatability work, which counts for more as a dog's nose and appetite quieten with age, and dried egg adds a small helping of easily used protein.

The small print that follows is ordinary good housekeeping. MOS and FOS are dosed at 1000 mg/kg each to encourage the useful gut bacteria, and rosemary extract at 150 mg/kg keeps the fats fresh. Yucca extract at 100 mg/kg has a long history of taking the edge off stool odour, and older dogs and their owners tend to appreciate that.

In 2kg and 12kg bags, at £5.50 a kilo.

Taking the site's standard reference dog, a 15kg adult in moderate condition needing around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that comes to roughly 228 grams a day, or £1.25. The label puts 10kg to 20kg together at 145 to 245 grams, a wide span, so place your own dog inside it by feel and by waistline.