Sainsbury's Nature's Goodness Senior Dry review

Good is the band this one lands in, sitting well up inside it and level with the middle of the adult dry shelf. The lift comes from a label that names things: salmon at 30% with its meal and fresh shares given separately, and identified plants all the way down the list. Figures sit beside the joint ingredients in the recipe itself, and the claim is not left to the front of the bag. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 46.7%, which sits right on the shelf norm instead of above it. For an older dog, a decent protein share alongside a moderate starch load is a sensible shape to be feeding.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon (30%) (Salmon Meal 21%, Freshly Prepared Salmon* 9%), Sweet Potato*, Potato*, Dried Peas* (6%), Chicken Fat*, Dried Beet Pulp*, Chicken Gravy, Linseed* (2%), Minerals, Yeast Products (0.2%, as a source of Prebiotic MOS), Glucosamine (0.025%), Chondroitin (0.025%), Dried Cranberry*, Dried Blueberry*, Marigold Flower*, Turmeric*, Dried Spearmint. *Natural ingredients

Salmon leads at 30%, made up of 21% salmon meal and 9% freshly prepared salmon. The weighting towards meal is the useful part. Fresh fish is mostly water, and cooking drives it off, while meal goes in already dried, so most of that headline stays in the finished kibble. Protein reads 26.0% as fed, converting to 28.3% of dry matter on the 8% moisture a kibble usually carries.

The recipe is salmon led, not fish only. Chicken fat supplies the added fat and chicken gravy the palatability, both perfectly good ingredients in themselves. Between them, though, they mean this bag will not keep a dog away from chicken. Read it as a fish first food, not a single protein one.

Glucosamine and chondroitin are each declared at 0.025%. Glucosamine is the one most owners already know, usually drawn from shellfish shell, while chondroitin comes from cartilage and works alongside it. These are supportive amounts cooked into a complete food, not therapeutic doses, which is the normal place for them on a senior bag and a good reason to see them printed with a figure.

Sweet potato and potato are what bind it. Dried peas at 6% and dried beet pulp add fibre, with not a grain on the list. Linseed at 2% adds plant omega 3 on top of what the salmon brings, which is a sensible pairing given the two forms take different routes to the same destination. Yeast products at 0.2% supply a prebiotic MOS for the bacteria further down the gut.

The finishing list is short and named throughout: cranberry and blueberry, both dried, then marigold flower, turmeric and dried spearmint. The added minerals are the usual oxide and sulphate forms. Vitamin A at 17000 IU, vitamin D3 at 750 IU, vitamin E at 70mg and zinc at 75mg per kilo are all printed on the pack.

£3.45 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 231 grams a day, coming to about £0.80 a day. The day rate assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The pack's own guide asks 145 to 335 grams for a dog of 10kg to 30kg. Where your dog belongs in that range comes down to their condition.