Waitrose Senior Grain Free review

Good is where this ends up for us, level with the typical adult dry food. The recipe earns it in ordinary ways: a named meat at half the bag with its fresh portion declared, and a single root doing all the starch work. Carbohydrate is estimated at 41.9% of dry matter against 46.2% for the usual adult dry food. Two things stop it climbing further. The fat names a bird family and not one bird, and the minerals arrive as one line with nothing dosed.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (50%, of which 26% Fresh), Sweet Potato (33%), Beet Pulp (6%), Linseed (4%), Poultry Fat, Chicken Gravy, Minerals, Alfalfa, Yucca Extract (0.02%), Glucosamine (0.02%), Chondroitin (0.01%).

Chicken is declared at 50% of the recipe, with 26% of it going in fresh. Read that fresh figure with the oven in mind: fresh chicken is mostly water, and once the water has gone it is the dried portion carrying most of the protein. It manages the job here, with protein converting to 31.5% of dry matter, a shade higher than the adult grain free recipe from the same range.

Just one starch appears, sweet potato at 33%, and that simplicity suits an older dog. Grain free foods often reach for a stack of pulses to replace cereal, and this one does not. That helps hold the carbohydrate estimate down to 41.9% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Moisture is not declared on the pack, so that maths uses the 8% a dry food usually holds.

Linseed at 4% has climbed above the poultry fat in this version, and it is the omega 3 source. This is the plant form of omega 3, and the conversion to the active versions is slow in a dog. Expect quiet work on skin and coat over a few weeks. Beet pulp at 6% handles the fibre and behaves itself in the gut.

Glucosamine at 0.02% and chondroitin at 0.01% are the senior additions. Both are well known joint ingredients, and both are here in name more than in weight. Treat them as a small helping hand alongside whatever else you do for an ageing dog.

The one entry that leaves the label leaky is poultry fat. Behind poultry sit chicken, duck, goose and turkey. The pack does not narrow it down. Alfalfa, chicken gravy and yucca extract at 0.02% finish the list, the gravy in place to keep the bowl interesting for an older appetite. The minerals are grouped without doses, so their levels are not something the pack lets you check.

Sold in a 2kg bag, working out at £3.83 a kilo.

On about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), a 15kg adult in moderate condition eats around 230 grams. That is £0.88 a day. The pack's table asks 194 to 336 grams for a dog between 12kg and 25kg, and an older dog will often settle under that.