Pets at Home Complete Nutrition Mature Dry review

Our band here is Poor, and the reason is spelled out on the ingredients panel rather than buried in the maths. Most of the bag is cereals, meat and animal derivatives, derivatives of vegetable origin, and oils and fats. Every one of those is a category, and none of them names an ingredient. That is why a food with a complete and unremarkable analysis lands below the Good band that the average adult dry food holds.

What the band does not say is that an older dog will fare badly on it. The fat is lower, the energy is lower, the vitamins and minerals are dosed in print, and for a settled senior in good health this is an easy bowl to fill.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, Meat and Animal Derivatives (23% including 4% Chicken), Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Vegetables (1.3% Dried Peas equivalent to 4% Peas), Oils and Fats, Minerals

Grain comes first here, listed only as cereals. The biggest part of the bag is therefore a category, not a named crop. Derivatives of vegetable origin sits third and is equally broad, covering anything left over from the processing of cereals, vegetables, pulses or oilseed. Neither term is automatically a bad sign, and neither can be checked by the person holding the bag.

Chicken accounts for a named 4% of the 23% meat and animal derivatives entry. The named share gives the recipe its flavour; the rest is whichever parts of warm-blooded land animals the mill has to hand, which is precisely why the term exists. Protein lands at 22.2% on a dry matter basis, a gentle level that suits a dog no longer building muscle, though an older dog visibly losing condition will want more than this from somewhere.

The senior adjustment shows up in the fat, declared at 6.5%, which brings energy down to 326 kcal per 100 grams where 357 is typical for adult dry food. Fewer calories per mouthful means a dog whose walks have shortened can still be given a satisfying bowlful without the waistline creeping. Carbohydrate takes up the room the fat gives back, and it is the largest part of this recipe by a comfortable margin.

Vegetables come to 1.3% dried peas and nothing else, with the label adding the pre-drying equivalent of 4%. One oddity sits in the analysis: moisture is declared at 0.8%, where a kibble normally holds nearer 8%, so the as-fed and dry matter columns end up almost on top of each other. The label's own figure is what appears in the table above.

The added panel is dosed and readable, with vitamin A declared, D3 at 1,500IU, E at 70mg, methionine at 1,500mg and trace minerals running from 100mg of zinc down to 0.10mg of selenium. Zinc arrives as the oxide and selenium as sodium selenite, the plainer forms, which dogs absorb less efficiently than chelated minerals and organic selenium. Calcium works out at 2.32% of dry matter, a firm level that is fine for a grown dog and one more reason this bag belongs to adults rather than to puppies.

£1.04 a kilo in the 12kg bag, £1.25 a kilo in the 2kg.

For a 15kg adult in moderate condition, the day's food comes to about 258 grams, taking roughly 840 kcal a day as the target (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That lands at about £0.27 a day. What an older dog needs varies a great deal, so let your own dog set the final portion.