My Pet Says Super Premium Senior Light: Fish & Rice review

Our reading lands this in our Average band, a step under the Good band most dry adult foods reach. The reasons are visible on the label: rice comes before the fish, the protein is modest, and the estimated carbohydrate sits higher than a dry food normally carries. Read against its own brief, though, it does what a senior light diet is meant to do. Fat is kept low, carnitine is dosed, fibre is lifted for fullness and the joint trio is printed in full. Put that together and you have the point of the bag for an older dog who needs to lose a bit of weight without losing their dinner.

Ingredients, as declared: Brown Rice (22%), Dried Fish (20%), Barley, Oats, White Rice (10%),Chicken Fat, Beet Pulp (4%), Pea Fibre, Brewer'sYeast, Minerals, Vitamins, Yucca Schidigera Extract (190 mg/kg), Glucosamine (180 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (180 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg). Vitamins: Vitamin A 14,400 IU, Vitamin D3 1,925 IU, Vitamin E 95 IU. Provitamins: L-Carnitine 480 mg. Trace Elements: Iron (Iron (II) Sulphate Monohydrate) 50 mg, Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate) 50 mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate) 35 mg, Copper (Copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate) 12 mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous) 1 mg.

Rice comes first here. On a light food that is more or less unavoidable: with fat down at 8.0%, something else has to occupy the room. Brown rice at 22% leads, with white rice at 10% further down the list, and the brown form keeps more of the grain's fibre and micronutrients than the white.

Dried fish at 20% is the protein source, and dried is the useful word. The water is gone by the time it reaches the mixer. Against the same figure of fresh fish, 20% of dried fish puts considerably more protein into the finished kibble. The label never says which fish, and for a household working through a list of suspected triggers that will matter.

The other animal entry is chicken fat. Plenty of labels would not name the species; this one does. So this is not the fish-only food the front of the bag suggests, and if chicken is the thing your dog has reacted to before, that is worth knowing.

The weight side of the recipe is properly equipped. L-carnitine is dosed at 480 mg, working on the dog's own fat stores. Beet pulp at 4% and pea fibre take fibre to 4.3% of dry matter. Energy comes out at 341 kcal per 100g against the 357 typical of a dry adult food.

Barley and oats sit behind the rice, and brewer's yeast brings B vitamins and appetite appeal. Most owners will not recognise yucca schidigera extract at 190 mg/kg. It is a plant extract aimed at the smell of the stools, a small mercy in a house with an older dog. Vitamin E at 95 IU and a fully dosed sulphate mineral panel finish the label.

£4.10 a kilo, in a 12kg bag and a 15kg bag labelled for working dogs.

On the standard estimate, a 15kg dog in moderate condition eats about 246 grams a day of this, working from a maintenance figure of roughly 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That comes to £1.01 a day. For a dog between 10kg and 20kg, the label's own senior table asks 150 to 250 grams. Where your dog lands between the two is a matter for the waistline.