Arden Grange Grain Free Adult Superfoods Wet: Chicken review

Our scoring puts this tin in our Excellent band. Wet food is a strong category and the typical adult wet food reaches that band as well, so arriving there is not remarkable in itself; what lifts this one is the analysis. Protein converts to 47.6% of dry matter while the estimated carbohydrate sits at 10.0%, against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food, which is a lean and genuinely meat led result for a tin.

Protein and processing reads Excellent, nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, and value keeps step with the overall in Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken 60%, carrots 2%, peas 2%, sweet potato 2%, minerals, linseed, (prebiotic) fructooligosaccharides FOS, (prebiotic) mannan-oligosaccharides MOS, coconut oil (0.2%), glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate, linseed oil, spirulina (200mg/kg), chia seeds (200mg/kg), cranberry extract (100mg/kg), pomegranate extract (100mg/kg), dried blueberries (100mg/kg), dried mulberries (100mg/kg), dried lingonberries (100mg/kg), dried rosehips (100mg/kg).

Fresh chicken at 60% opens the list and it is the only animal ingredient in the tin, with no fish oil, no unnamed fat and no derivative to work around. Protein converts to 47.6% of dry matter and fat to 28.6%, so the analysis backs the headline up.

The plant base is deliberately small, with carrots, peas and sweet potato at 2% each. That is why the estimated carbohydrate comes in at 10.0% of dry matter where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%. Linseed sits alongside them for its fibre and its omega-3, and linseed oil and coconut oil at 0.2% supply the added fat.

FOS and MOS are both included. They are prebiotics, there to feed the useful bacteria further down the gut, and seeing the pair of them on a wet label is less common than it is on a dry one.

Every one of the superfoods carries a milligram figure. Spirulina and chia seeds are at 200 mg/kg. Cranberry and pomegranate extracts, with dried blueberries, mulberries, lingonberries and rosehips, come in at 100 mg/kg each. At those amounts they are a flourish rather than a functional dose, and the reason to choose this tin is the chicken and the analysis, not the berry list. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate sit in the same stretch of the label, undosed.

The added panel is short and each entry carries a figure: copper, zinc, manganese and iodine, with vitamin D3, vitamin E and L-carnitine alongside them. Ash converts to 11.9% of dry matter, an unremarkable mineral load, and energy is declared on the label, so we have not had to estimate it.

£7.57 a kilo, in 395 g tins sold in packs of 6, 24 and 48.

As a guide, feeding works out at around £6.42 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 848 grams a day, or a little over two tins. The guide printed on the label runs from 625 to 1050 grams for a dog of 10 to 20 kg.