Within Adult & Senior Dry Chicken review

The Average band is where our scoring settles this one, a rung under the middle of the adult dry category, and the reasons pull in both directions. In its favour: a named fresh meat at the front, calcium at a comfortable 0.98% of dry matter, chelated trace minerals, organic selenium and a joint trio with real figures beside it. Against: whole oats at 25%, sweet potato at 17% and two plant proteins between them push estimated carbohydrate to 51.6% of dry matter, above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. The 26% freshly prepared chicken also gives up much of its water in the oven. It is a considered, well-finished everyday food that reads better in its small print than in its headline.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Chicken (26%), Whole Oats (25%), Sweet Potato (17%), Potato Protein (10%), Dried Peas (4%), Dried Carrot, (4%), Poultry Oil (3.7%), Pea Protein (3.2%), Vegetable Gravy (2%), Minerals, Dried Pumpkin (1%), Salmon Oil (1%), Postbiotic - Inactivated Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Fermentation Product (0.4%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.1%), Mannan-oligosaccharides (Prebiotic MOS)(0.1%), Glucosamine (0.034%), MSM (0.034%), Chondroitin (0.024%), Yucca Extract (0.02%), Dried Blueberry (0.01%), Dried Rosemary (0.01%), Dried Seaweed (0.01%), Dried Spinach (0.01%).

Freshly prepared chicken at 26% is the headline, and fresh is the operative word. Most of that quarter is water, and it leaves during cooking, so the finished kibble holds rather less chicken than the number suggests. There is nothing dishonest in that, it is simply how fresh meat behaves in a dry food, but there is no dried chicken behind it here to make up the difference. Protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter, a fair middle-of-the-road result.

That gap is where potato protein at 10% and pea protein at 3.2% come in. Both bring useful amino acids, though neither is as digestible as animal protein. Between them they mean the protein line owes more to the plant side than a quick read of the front of the bag would suggest.

Whole oats at 25% lead the carbohydrate, with sweet potato at 17% behind them. Oats are an easy grain for most dogs once cooked and they carry fibre and B vitamins along with them, so the cereal here reads as a considered choice rather than a filler.

The gut work is the most interesting part of this label. Chicory root extract supplies FOS and the mannan-oligosaccharides supply MOS, two prebiotics that suit the bacteria in the large intestine. The inactivated yeast at 0.4% is a postbiotic, and a live Bacillus culture sits among the additives as a gut flora stabiliser. Fibre at 4.9% of dry matter is on the generous side, which tends to suit an older dog.

The joint support is genuine and it is printed: glucosamine and MSM at 0.034% each with chondroitin at 0.024%. Read those as steady, supportive amounts on a maintenance food rather than the doses a vet would reach for in a visibly stiff dog.

The trace minerals arrive as chelates of protein hydrolysates, the form a gut generally takes up more readily, and the selenium is the organic version, not the sodium salt used in most kibbles. Calcium works out at 0.98% of dry matter, an easy level for an adult.

£7.00 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 10kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 238 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.67 a day. The label's own table asks 160 to 310 grams for dogs between 10kg and 25kg, a wide span, so let your dog's waistline place them inside it.