Arden Grange Adult Wet: With fresh lamb & rice review

Both tins finish together in our Excellent band. Wet food scores well as a category and the typical adult wet food gets into that band too, but this pair still comes out ahead of the middle of the field, which takes some doing. Transparency reads Outstanding, on the strength of the declared meat share and the full printed analysis. Value reads Excellent, as do nutritional balance and protein and processing.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh lamb (70%), Rice (6%), Minerals, Dried Peas, Dried Carrots, Beet Pulp, Fish Oil, Dried Seaweed, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Cranberry Extract, Yucca Extract, Yeast Extract (high nucleotides).

Fresh meat at 70% is the headline and it is a real one, with the chicken or the lamb named and weighed on the label. Protein converts to 36.7% of dry matter and fat to 26.7%. Moisture is declared at 70.0%, lower than most wet food, and that is a large part of why these tins carry so much energy for their size.

Rice is the only cereal, at 5% in the chicken tin and 6% in the lamb, with dried peas, dried carrots and beet pulp filling out the plant side. Peas bring some protein and fibre of their own, carrots bring vitamin A and antioxidants, and beet pulp is a steady, gentle fibre that most dogs digest without fuss.

The extras are where Arden Grange usually puts its attention. Fish oil brings omega-3, dried seaweed brings iodine and a spread of trace minerals, yeast extract is there for its nucleotides, and cranberry and yucca extracts round the list off. Yucca in particular is included with an eye on how the garden smells afterwards.

Glucosamine and chondroitin sit in the same part of the list, both without a printed amount, so they are a considered gesture towards ageing joints rather than a treatment for a diagnosed one. A dog already on something their vet has dosed should stay on it, with this as the dinner underneath.

The added panel is fully dosed, with vitamin A, vitamin D3 and vitamin E ahead of zinc, iron, copper, manganese, iodine and selenium. Ash converts to 11.7% of dry matter, a normal mineral load for a wet food of this build.

Fresh lamb at 70% with rice at 6%, a slightly larger share of grain than the chicken tin carries. Lamb is the gentler option for a dog that has had its fill of poultry, and the analysis is otherwise identical.

£5.54 a kilo, the same figure on both tins, in a 395 g size sold in packs of 6, 24 and 48.

As a guide, feeding works out at around £3.60 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 is roughly 650 grams a day, a little under two tins, where the label's own guide for a dog of 10 to 25 kg runs from 400 to 790 grams. Calories are not declared on these labels, so the energy figure behind the estimate is ours.