Ava Health & Vitality French Bulldog Wet: Adult Fish Pâté review

Good is where this pâté lands. A band above it, in Excellent, is where the middle of the adult wet shelf lies. The pull is the size of the meat share against the amount of the pouch given over to starch and water.

Where it does well is in declaration and in balance. Both fish species are named with their own percentages, and the label declares energy at 93 kcal per 100g. Protein converts to 42.5% of dry matter, and estimated carbohydrate comes to 14.6%, below the 15.8% typical for adult wet food. Carbohydrate on a wet label is never measured directly. It is whatever is left once everything else has been counted, and it carries any fibre and sugars the label has not itemised. A reading under the typical mark is worth noting.

Ingredients, as declared: Fish (36%)(Tuna 29%, Salmon 7%), Sweet Potato (8%), Sunflower Oil (3.7%), Cellulose Fibre (0.9%), Minerals, Tapioca Starch, Yeast Extract, Fish Oil (0.3%), Yeast (as a source of Prebiotic Mannan-oligosaccharides and Beta-glucans)(0.055%), Glucosamine (0.022%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic Fructo-oligosaccharides)(0.02%), Chondroitin (0.02%), Yucca Extract (0.005%), Cranberry Extract (0.002%), Green Tea Extract (0.001%), Pomegranate Extract (0.001%)

The animal content is 36% and it is broken open for you: tuna at 29% and salmon at 7%. Naming both species is more than most fish recipes do, and it matters for a dog on an exclusion, because a list that simply says fish tells you nothing about which one. Protein converts to 42.5% of dry matter, a solid figure for a wet food.

Sweet potato at 8% and tapioca starch behind it carry the carbohydrate, tapioca being pure cassava starch and useful mainly for holding a pâté together. Cellulose fibre at 0.9% is a refined plant fibre. Its job is bulk and stool structure, not nutrition. Sunflower oil at 3.7% is the largest added fat and a decent one, low in saturated fat and rich in vitamin E.

Glucosamine at 0.022% and chondroitin at 0.02% are printed with their inclusions, which is a straighter way of doing it than listing them with no figure at all. They are still modest amounts, so treat them as a supportive extra for an ageing dog rather than as a treatment. If your dog already has a diagnosed joint problem, the vet's prescription comes first and this goes in the bowl beneath it.

Fish brings minerals with it, and ash at 11.8% of dry matter reflects that, with calcium settling at 0.8% of dry matter, a comfortable level for adult maintenance. Fish oil at 0.3% tops up the omega-3, though the label does not say which fish it comes from.

The tail of the list is Ava's usual arrangement. For the gut bacteria there is mannan-oligosaccharide from prebiotic yeast at 0.055% and fructo-oligosaccharide from chicory root extract at 0.02%. Yucca, cranberry, green tea and pomegranate follow at trace level. Taurine and L-carnitine are both dosed in the panel, with vitamin E at 100 mg beside them. Chelation to protein hydrolysates puts the trace elements in a form the body tends to absorb better than a plain mineral salt.

The pouches are 85 g, twelve to a pack, and it works out at £12.74 a kilo.

Our standard estimate takes a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needing about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That would come to roughly 903 grams a day and £11.51. A French bulldog usually weighs rather less than that, and the label puts a dog of 10 to 12 kg at 595 to 722.5 grams a day, or seven to eight and a half pouches.