WorkingHPRs Senior: White Fish with Rice review

The three do not finish together. Grain Free Senior takes our Good band on the strength of 50% trout and salmon and a genuinely restrained fat figure. Turkey with Sweet Potato & Cranberry sits in the same band, a shade further forward. Our Average band is where White Fish with Rice arrives, one rung below the dry adult category's middle, and the reason sits at the top of its ingredients list: rice first, dried fish second. None of that makes the white fish recipe a bad bowl for an older dog, particularly one who has eaten cereal happily all their life. It simply asks less of the meat than the other two do.

Ingredients, as declared: Brown Rice (22%), Dried Fish (20%), Barley, Oats, White Rice (10%), Chicken Fat, Beet Pulp (4%), Pea Fibre, Brewer's Yeast, Minerals, Yucca Schidigera Extract (190 mg/kg), Glucosamine (180 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (180 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg).

The whole split is printed on Grain Free Senior, whose trout and salmon come to 50%: 30% freshly prepared trout, 3% salmon oil, 2% salmon stock, 11% dried salmon and 4% freshly prepared salmon. Trout leading a senior recipe is unusual and welcome, and the 3% salmon oil is a proper source of marine omega 3. Fat is held to 8.0%. That is much the point of a senior food: enough to carry the fat-soluble vitamins, without piling weight onto a dog doing shorter walks.

Where that recipe gives something away is on the plant proteins. Pea protein and potato protein sit behind sweet potato at 24% and potato, and both lift the analysis without matching meat for digestibility. Protein reads 28.3% of dry matter, so the bowl is far from short, and it is worth knowing where part of that figure comes from.

Turkey with Sweet Potato & Cranberry is the cleanest single-animal label of the three: 27% of it freshly prepared turkey, 2% turkey stock and 21% dried turkey. Beyond an Omega 3 Supplement that does not name its source, the list holds no other animal. Turkey is leaner than chicken and easily digested, so it turns up in a great many older dogs' bowls. L-Carnitine at 500 mg plays a part in moving stored fat into usable energy while lean muscle stays put.

White Fish with Rice is built the other way round, opening with brown rice at 22%, dried fish at 20%, then barley, oats and white rice at 10%. That gives estimated carbohydrate of 57.1% of dry matter and protein of 22.8%, the gentlest of the three. Chicken fat supplies the fat, and pea fibre with beet pulp at 4% the fibre. Yucca schidigera extract at 190 mg/kg is in there for stool odour, no small consideration when an older dog shares the house. L-Carnitine appears on this label too, at 480 mg.

The joint ingredients are the thread running through all three bags. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane come in at 170 mg/kg in the two grain free recipes and 180 mg/kg in the white fish, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg on every label. Chondroitin is a natural component of cartilage, and glucosamine one of the most commonly used joint supplements there is. Printed figures let you see exactly what an older dog is getting.

Around the edges, beet pulp does the fibre work across the line and brewer's yeast on the white fish label brings a natural spread of B vitamins. Calcium runs from 0.98% of dry matter in the white fish up to 1.63% in the turkey, all comfortable adult levels. Energy goes from 320 kcal per 100g in the trout recipe to 343 in the turkey. All three sit below the 357 typical for adult dry food, and that is exactly what a slowing dog wants.

The cereal recipe of the three, opening with brown rice at 22%, dried fish at 20%, then barley, oats and white rice at 10%. Chicken fat supplies the fat, and pea fibre joins beet pulp at 4% for the fibre. Yucca schidigera extract at 190 mg/kg is there to help with what an older dog leaves on the lawn. Its joint doses are the largest in the range, with glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 180 mg/kg each, and L-Carnitine comes in at 480 mg.

Per kilo, White Fish with Rice is £3.30, Turkey with Sweet Potato & Cranberry £4.00 and Grain Free Senior £4.37. All three come in 15kg bags.

Using the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs around 840 kcal a day. That is 246g of the white fish at £0.81, 245g of the turkey at £0.98 and 262g of Grain Free Senior at £1.15. The white fish label itself asks 150g to 250g for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so let the waistline be the referee between the two.