Naturo Senior Grain Free Dry review

Our reading lands this in the Good band, a little clear of the middle of the field, since the typical adult dry food occupies that band as well. Nothing dramatic earns the gap. Turkey at half the recipe, protein converting to 32.6% of dry matter, and a carbohydrate estimate of 39.1% of dry matter where 46.2% is typical for a dry food all pull the same way. Read it as a well put together everyday food for the dog it names, not a showpiece.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 50% (Turkey Meat Meal 27%, Fresh Turkey 20%, Turkey Digest 3%), Potato (26%), Dried Sugar Beet, Dried Peas (6%), Pea Starch (3%), Dried Carrot (2%), Rapeseed Oil (2%), Whole Linseed (2%), Minerals, Tomato Pomace (0.5%), Seaweed Meal, Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) (0.1%), Mannan-oligo-saccharides (MOS) (0.1%), Brewers Yeast, Glucosamine (0.03%), Chondroitin (0.03%), MSM (0.03%), Extract of Yucca Schidigera (0.02%), Rosemary Extract

The 50% turkey headline is split three ways and the split is the interesting part: turkey meat meal at 27%, fresh turkey at 20% and turkey digest at 3%. Fresh meat brings a lot of water with it, and the oven removes that. The meal at 27% survives into the finished kibble, and it does most of the protein work. That shows in the analysis, with protein at 32.6% of dry matter.

Potato at 26% is the main plant entry, with dried peas at 6% and pea starch at 3% behind it. Nothing on the list is a cereal, and the grain-free promise holds without leaning on anything exotic.

Dried sugar beet sits between the potato and the peas, which puts a fibre ingredient higher up the order than most labels place it. Beet pulp is what is left of the sugar beet once the sugar has gone. Its job is to keep digestion regular, not to feed the dog. Crude fibre still comes out at only 3.3% of dry matter, so the finished food is not a high-fibre one.

It is the small entries that carry the senior thinking. Glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM are each declared at 0.03%, so the joint support arrives with a number attached rather than a name on a bullet point. FOS and MOS at 0.1% each feed the gut bacteria, seaweed meal brings iodine and trace minerals, and tomato pomace at 0.5% and rosemary extract round the list off. Rapeseed oil at 2% and whole linseed at 2% supply the fats, so the omega side is entirely plant based and no fish ingredient appears on the list.

The added mineral panel is dosed in full and doubles up in two places. Zinc arrives as 70 mg of sulphate plus 30 mg of a protein-hydrolysate chelate, and the chelate is the more readily absorbed of the two forms. Selenium comes as 0.13 mg of the sodium form plus 0.02 mg of the yeast-grown one. Iron at 40 mg, manganese at 20 mg, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 1.5 mg per kilo complete it. A meat meal brings bone with it, and that shows up as ash at 10.9% of dry matter.

£5.50 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 233 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.28 a day. The label's own table asks 170 to 290 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so let the waistline settle any gap between the two.