James Wellbeloved Senior Dog Chicken & Rice

A senior dog's diet often changes for practical reasons rather than dramatic ones — a vet suggests something gentler on ageing joints, or a dog simply seems to prefer a different flavour to the one it has eaten for a decade. This recipe is built for that quieter kind of change.

Chicken is the only named animal protein, but brown rice actually leads the ingredient list by weight, at 26%, ahead of the 16.5% dried chicken protein, with a further 10% white rice besides. It is a complete food for senior dogs, and James Wellbeloved's approach across the range is to exclude beef, pork, soya, eggs, dairy and wheat.

• Complete food for senior dogs, named protein: chicken
• Brown rice (26%) is the largest single ingredient, ahead of the 16.5% dried chicken protein
• Protein 20.1%, fat 9.4%, crude ash 5.1%, crude fibre 3.5%
• Glucosamine (0.045%) and chondroitin (0.005%) for joint support
• Excludes beef, pork, soya, eggs, dairy and wheat
• 2KG bag

On the name. This is called Chicken & Rice, but by weight rice is well ahead of the chicken — brown rice alone is 26% of the recipe against 16.5% dried chicken protein, and there's a further 10% white rice on top of that. Chicken is still the only named animal protein, so it earns the name, but if you pictured a mostly-meat kibble, this is closer to a rice-based food with chicken added than the reverse.

Who it's for: senior dogs already settled on a rice-based diet, where the priority is the joint-support additives and a familiar chicken flavour rather than a high-meat recipe.