Aatu For Dogs Wet: Chicken review

Three of the five come to rest in our Outstanding band and the other two sit barely under them in Excellent. The choice comes down to your dog's protein, not to any gap in quality. The typical wet food lands in our Excellent band, wet being a strong category on our scoring, and this range still finishes ahead of that mark.

Ingredients, as declared: 90% Chicken (Includes Chicken 60%, Chicken Broth 30%), Sweet Potato, Carrots, Lucerne, Peas, Chickpeas, Minerals, Tomato, Tapioca, Apple, Pear, Cranberry, Blueberry, Mulberry, Orange, Bilberry, Cowberry, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Parsley, Peppermint, Spirulina, Seaweed, Oregano, Sage, Marjoram, Thyme, Chamomile, Rosehip, Yucca, Chicory, Aniseed, Stinging Nettle, Marigold, Fenugreek, Cinnamon, MSM.

The 90% claim rewards a closer look, and it holds up. Split it open and 60% is the named animal while 30% is broth made from the same animal, declared with a percentage rather than slipped in as water. Protein converts to between 40.0% and 49.5% of dry matter depending on the recipe, which is a genuinely meat-led analysis for a wet food.

Behind the meat sits the plant base Aatu uses across its ranges: sweet potato, carrots, peas and chickpeas, with tapioca helping to bind. No cereal appears anywhere on the five labels, so the range is fully grain free.

Then comes the signature Aatu flourish, an orchard and a herb garden running from apple and pear through to fenugreek and cinnamon. All of it sits at trace level, and none of it is why you would buy this food. The meat is, and the analysis keeps the weight there.

Glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM close every list. Only the Tuna & Salmon puts numbers to them, at 100 mg/kg for the glucosamine and chondroitin and 10 mg/kg for the MSM. Across the range the trio reads as a friendly extra. A dog with a diagnosed joint problem should stay on whatever their vet has dosed for them, with this as the dinner underneath.

The added vitamin and mineral panel is short and dosed: vitamin D3, vitamin E, zinc, manganese and iodine, with copper joining on the fish recipe. A food this meat-rich carries much of its micronutrition in the ingredients themselves. A short panel here is a sign of strength.

Chicken at 60% with chicken broth at 30%, the other single-animal recipe. The lightest of the five at an estimated 98 kcal per 100g, and the highest in protein once moisture is stripped out, at 49.5% of dry matter.

Every variety is £6.39 a kilo, in a single 400g size sold in packs of 6, 12 and 18.

As a guide, feeding works out at between £4.79 and £5.47 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, depending on the variety. That assumes about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That corresponds to roughly 749 to 856 grams. The label's own guide for a 15kg dog is 1400 grams a day.