Ava Wet Food Adult: Chicken Pâté review

The three listings do not land together. The Chicken & Lamb multipack reads Excellent, with transparency Outstanding and protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all Excellent. The chicken pâté reads Good, and the leaner listing, chicken at 26% or white fish at 41%, reads Average with protein and processing Poor. Adult wet food normally settles in the Excellent band, so only the meatiest of the three is at home there.

One thing to be straight about: the pâté and the Chicken & Lamb tins carry the same 46% chicken recipe and the same analysis, and our scoring still separates them, Good against Excellent. Nothing inside the tin changes between the two. If you want the strongest reading the range has to offer, it is the Chicken & Lamb multipack.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (46%), Brown Rice (7%), Minerals, Beet Pulp, Brewers Yeast, Fish Oil, Whole Dried Egg, Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic Fructooligosaccharide) (0.040%), Yeasts (as a source of Beta-glucans and Prebiotic Mannanoligosaccharides) (0.028%), Glucosamine (0.013%), Chondroitin (0.005%), Yucca Extract (0.005%), Cranberry Extract (0.002%), Green Tea Extract (0.001%), Pomegranate Extract (0.001%)

Meat share is what really divides these labels. The Chicken & Lamb tins and the pâté name their animal at 46%, and protein converts to 36.4% of dry matter with fat at 22.7%, which is a properly meaty analysis for a wet food. On the leaner listing it is chicken at 26% or white fish at 41%, giving 30.0% protein and 15.0% fat once the water comes out.

The starch is brown rice throughout, 7% in the richer recipes and 10% in the leaner one. Beet pulp brings fibre and brewers yeast sits alongside it. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 30.9% of dry matter in the meatier tins and 44.0% in the lighter one, both above the 15.8% typical of adult wet food. A grain-free household will want to look at the ingredients before choosing.

The oils differ too, and it matters more than it looks. The Chicken & Lamb tins and the pâté use fish oil. That brings omega-3 fats for the skin and coat and for joint comfort. The leaner listing uses sunflower oil instead, low in saturated fat and a natural source of vitamin E. Whole dried egg adds a little extra protein to all of them.

Every recipe finishes the same way. A yeast fraction at 0.028% and chicory root extract at 0.04% are the prebiotics, both feeding the gut bacteria. Glucosamine and chondroitin appear at declared levels for the joints. Trace amounts of pomegranate, green tea, yucca and cranberry round it off. None of the extras is a reason to buy the food on its own, but they are all named and counted, which is more than many tins bother with.

Minerals are the striking part of the analysis. Crude ash converts to 9.1% or 10.0% of dry matter depending on the recipe and calcium to between 3.1% and 4.36%, a generous load for an adult dog. Zinc at 16.05mg and copper at 2mg arrive as chelates, the form a gut tends to take up best, and the leaner listing adds L-carnitine at 25mg. The set comes from carrageenan and guar gum, with sodium and potassium salts alongside.

The chicken pâté bought on its own, the same 46% chicken recipe as the multipack tin, right down to the fish oil and the 0.013% glucosamine. Its protein and processing comes back Average where the multipack reads Excellent, though nothing in the recipe or the analysis separates the two.

The twelve-tin listing works out at £4.85 a kilo, the six-tin Chicken & Lamb at £5.48 a kilo and the single chicken pâté at £6.05 a kilo, all in the same 395g size.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that is 1087 grams a day of the leaner recipe at £5.27. The meatier ones come to 891 grams, at £4.88 from the Chicken & Lamb multipack and £5.39 from single pâté tins.