Senior Dog Nutrition: Joint Support That Is Actually in the Bowl

Something highly digestible, with joint support that is present in a meaningful amount, and nothing that complicates whatever else they are being managed for.

Digestive efficiency is often said to decline with age in dogs, and this is the usual justification for senior-specific diets. The evidence is less settled than the marketing suggests, and at least one major veterinary guideline argues age alone is not a reason to change a healthy dog's diet.

In a 28-day trial of 56 adult dogs, black soldier fly diets showed protein digestibility of 87.9–89.6% and fat digestibility of 96.0–96.7%, with no adverse effect on blood chemistry or stool quality (Freel et al., 2021).

Providing adequate, high quality, digestible protein to help maintain lean muscle mass should be a priority as older dogs can be more prone to sarcopenia and loss of muscle and strength.

This is worth being precise about, because the category can be misleading.

In laboratory analysis, black soldier fly larvae meal measured around 0.5% of dry matter against 0.4% for chicken meal — a difference the authors state was not statistically significant, with an error bar of ±0.2 on the 0.5 (Mouithys-Mickalad et al., Molecules, 2021). The refined protein hydrolysate measured 0.4%, identical to chicken meal.

So while the protein contributes, it doesn't contain enough to make a meaningful difference on its own.

Not demonstrably, in dogs. This is one of two evidence gaps on this page.

The laboratory work is genuinely interesting. In cell-based tests — not in dogs — black soldier fly protein derivatives suppressed reactive oxygen species production by activated immune cells by more than 50%, while chicken meal did not, and showed no cytotoxicity across the concentrations tested (Mouithys-Mickalad et al., 2021).

But no cartilage or joint cells were used in that work. The tests used red blood cells, activated macrophages and a human leukaemia cell line. The authors themselves say feeding trials are needed to confirm whether any of it translates to live animals.

So we mention it because it points somewhere interesting, not because it proves anything about your dog's joints.

We add ingredients for joint support in all of our complete food recipes.

All-Day Buffet includes chondroitin at 200mg/kg and MSM at 400mg/kg. Top Dog All-In-One delivers 250mg of plant-based glucosamine and 100mg of phytodroitin per 5g scoop, alongside 100mg of dried algae at 35% DHA.

The glucosamine in Top Dog All-In-One is plant-derived rather than shellfish-derived, which matters for a dog on an elimination diet or with a shellfish sensitivity — most joint supplements use shellfish-derived glucosamine.

We do not know, and nor does anyone else. This is the second evidence gap.

The claim circulates in this category on the back of a literature review of black soldier fly fats which contains no primary dog data of its own (Kotob et al., Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology, 2022). We could not access its full text, and we found nothing anywhere establishing an effect on canine cognition, memory or mood from insect protein.

So for now, we can't make any hard claims about cognition. If any relevant research pops up, we'll update this page accordingly.