Alpha Spirit Imperial Wet Sausage Multiprotein review

Excellent is the band this sausage lands in, and Excellent is also where the middle of the adult wet shelf sits, so the useful question is where inside that band it falls. This one finishes above that midpoint. Everything behind that is printed on the pack. The animal content is itemised down to the percentage, nothing is described in category terms, and once the water comes out there is barely any carbohydrate left to account for. Protein and processing reads Excellent, with nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding.

Ingredients, as declared: 95% Fresh Meat (Pork 56%, Chicken 39%), Beet Fibre, Collagen, Paprika, Bay Leaf, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme.

The recipe is 95% fresh meat and Alpha Spirit does not leave it at that, printing pork at 56% and chicken at 39% so you know the split before you buy. Fresh meat of this kind is a natural, highly palatable food for a dog, and it is what pushes protein to 48.7% of dry matter once the moisture is taken out.

Pork takes the larger share, and it remains an uncommon meat in dog food, which is precisely why it earns its place: a dog cannot react to something it has never eaten. Chicken behind it is the most familiar meat there is, easy for most dogs and, because of that same familiarity, the meat dogs most often become intolerant of.

Beet fibre is the only plant entry of any substance. It sits at trace level and does a gentle job on stool quality. Estimated carbohydrate is 4.5% of dry matter where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%.

Collagen follows the beet fibre. It is connective tissue protein, useful for holding a sausage together and a normal part of what a dog would get off a carcass, though the pack does not say which animal supplied it. Paprika, bay leaf, oregano, rosemary and thyme close the list at trace level, with the rosemary earning its keep as a natural antioxidant that slows fats turning.

Every entry in the added panel carries a number. Vitamin A is at 7954 IU per kilo, vitamin D3 at 509 and vitamin E at 159, with manganese, iron, copper, zinc and iodine each printed in milligrams. Calcium converts to 0.6% of dry matter, comfortable for an adult dog on maintenance.

£17.11 a kilo, sold as a 350g sausage, a 150g sausage or a four-pack of 65g sausages.

As a guide, feeding works out at around £8.65 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly 505 grams a day. Because the sausage carries so much energy per gram, the daily weight is smaller than wet feeding usually looks.