Specific CGD-S Senior small breed review

This one finishes in our Average band, a step under the Good band that catches most adult dry foods. The reasons are structural. Wheat and maize protein take the first two slots, the one named meat is fish meal, and the remaining animal entry is a hydrolysate with no species attached. Protein at 20.1% as fed is on the gentle side even for a senior recipe. What a band cannot show is the care in the supporting cast, and for an older small dog that has always eaten this way, the bowl itself will be perfectly agreeable.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, maize protein, beet pulp, fish meal, pork fat, fish oil, animal protein hydrolysate, minerals, vitamins and trace elements, (including chelated trace elements), egg powder, methionine, yeast (source of mannan-oligosaccharides), lysine, taurine, threonine, tryptophan, L-carnitine, rosemary extract. With natural antioxidants (tocopherols and vitamin C).

The first two ingredients tell the story of the kibble. Wheat gives the biscuit its structure and most of its bulk. Maize protein lifts the protein figure, and no meat comes with it. Both are ordinary, workable cereal ingredients. Give them a thought if grain has ever caused your dog trouble.

Fish meal in fourth place is where the animal protein actually comes from. Meal is fish that has been rendered and ground to a dry powder, so it is a concentrated ingredient. Most nutritionists rate it a notch below fresh fish. It is still a proper source of the amino acids, fats and minerals a dog needs, and it is unmistakably named.

Beet pulp sits third as the fibre. It ferments gently in the gut and helps hold a stool together, which is useful in an older dog whose digestion has become less predictable. Crude fibre is declared at 2.5% as fed, though, so this is a light touch and not a fibre-heavy build.

The added amino acids are the giveaway that much of the protein is plant-derived. Lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan each appear separately, which is how a maker balances a profile that meat would otherwise fill in on its own. Taurine and L-carnitine follow for the heart and for lean muscle, and yeast brings mannan-oligosaccharides to feed the gut flora.

Fat comes from pork fat with fish oil behind it. The fish oil is the entry that earns its keep in a food for older dogs, supplying omega 3s that stiff joints and dull coats benefit from. Egg powder adds a little easily used protein. The preservatives are the natural sort, rosemary extract with tocopherols and vitamin C.

£6.51 a kilo, sold in 1 kg, 4 kg and 7 kg bags.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg dog in moderate condition works out at about £1.52 a day, or roughly 234 grams, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Most dogs on this recipe are a fair bit smaller, and the label asks 95 grams for a 5kg dog and 155 grams for a 10kg dog.