Naturo Senior Mini Dog Pouches: Turkey & Rice With Vegetables review

These pouches land in our Good band, one rung under the adult wet category's middle, which reaches into Excellent. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance Excellent, with protein and processing and value alike reading Good. The turkey is named and quantified, and the rice is declared with a figure instead of being folded into a cereal heading. An estimated 17.3% carbohydrate on a dry matter basis sits close to the 15.8% typical of adult wet food, so nothing in the analysis pulls against the ingredient list. Two bits of small print hold the reading down: the vegetables share one grouped percentage, and the joint entries are token amounts.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 65%, Brown Rice 12.5% (from 5.2% Dried Brown Rice), Vegetables 10% (from 1.8% Dried Potato, Carrots and Peas), Minerals, Sunflower Oil 0.75%, Salmon Oil 0.3%, Tomato Powder 0.15%, Dried Kelp 0.08%, Dried Cranberry 0.05%, Dried Blueberry 0.05%, Dried Chicory Root 0.04%, Yeast 0.04%, Dried Basil 0.016%, Yucca Powder 0.01%, Glucosamine HCl 0.005%, Chondroitin 0.002%, Pomegranate Extract 0.002%

The list names a single animal, turkey, with 65% printed beside it and no category term standing in. Turkey is mild and easily digested, and it runs a little lower in fat than chicken. That is part of why food for older dogs leans on it so often. Once moisture comes out, protein converts to 35.2% of dry matter and fat to 31.5%, and the pouch carries 127 kcal per 100g.

Brown rice at 12.5% is the single cereal, shown alongside the 5.2% dried weight it is reconstituted from. Underneath it a 10% vegetable entry covers potato, carrots and peas together, drawn from 1.8% in dried form. Carrots and peas are welcome additions in their own right; the grouping simply means their exact split stays with the maker.

The entries aimed at an older dog sit last of all. Glucosamine HCl at 0.005% and chondroitin at 0.002% are daily upkeep amounts, not a therapeutic programme. A dog with a diagnosed joint condition wants the vet's dose on top of this, with the pouch as the meal underneath. L-Carnitine at 25mg comes from the additive panel, and it is there because older dogs tend to carry weight more easily than they did.

The trimmings are the same ones Naturo uses across the range. Tomato powder comes in at 0.15%, kelp at 0.08%, cranberry and blueberry at 0.05% each. Chicory root and yeast take 0.04%, basil 0.016%, yucca 0.01% and pomegranate extract 0.002%. Of that group chicory root does the most, since its inulin is a prebiotic fibre the gut can use.

Sunflower oil at 0.75% is one added fat and salmon oil at 0.3% is the other. That salmon oil brings the marine omega 3, and the fish along with it. Every entry on the vitamin and trace mineral panel carries a printed dose. Plenty of wet labels do not go that far.

£6.67 a kilo, sold in 150g pouches.

We work day rates from a 15kg adult, and that is a bigger dog than this pouch is aimed at. On that basis it works out at £4.41 a day, or about 661 grams, taking the dog's energy need as roughly 840 kcal daily from the standard 110 × bodyweight^0.75 maintenance sum. A small dog gets through a fraction of that.