Ava Wet Food Adult Chunks in Gravy: Medium Breed review

All three versions come out in Good, a band below where the middle of the adult wet shelf sits, in Excellent. Chicken at 32% is a moderate share for a wet food, and pea protein, tapioca starch and cellulose fibre take up a good deal of what follows. That is what pushes estimated carbohydrate to between 25.3% and 33.4% of dry matter. That estimate is worked out by difference on a wet label, so it carries the fibre and any unlisted sugars along with the starch.

What the range gets right is showing its workings. Inclusions are printed down to 0.001%, each label declares its own energy figure, and the additive panel is dosed on all three. Protein still converts to between 34.7% and 36.9% of dry matter, so the bowl reads perfectly sensibly for an adult dog in ordinary condition.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (32%), Sweet Potato (4%), Pea Protein, Tapioca Starch, Cellulose Fibre (1.3%), Minerals, Sunflower Oil, Fish Oil (0.3%), Yeast (as a source of Prebiotic Mannan-oligosaccharides and Beta-glucans)(0.055%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic Fructo-oligosaccharides)(0.02%), Glucosamine (0.011%), Yucca Extract (0.005%), Chondroitin (0.004%), Cranberry Extract (0.002%), Pomegranate Extract (0.001%), Green Tea Extract (0.001%)

No meat but chicken appears in the range, and every label prints it at 32%. Chicken is fed to more dogs than any other meat, and it is both palatable and easy on most digestions. The flip side of that popularity is that chicken intolerance is reported more often than intolerance to any other protein. If your dog is fine on chicken, this is a straightforward recipe to read.

Pea protein is the entry that deserves the closest look, because it sits second or third on all three lists. It is a byproduct of pea processing used to lift the protein figure. Vegetable protein does not match meat protein for quality or digestibility, so some of the protein in the analysis is doing less work than the same number from chicken would. Whole peas would be a different matter; this is the refined fraction.

Sweet potato at 4% and tapioca starch carry the rest of the carbohydrate. Tapioca brings starch and very little else. Cellulose fibre appears on all three at around a percent. Refined plant fibre of that kind gives bulk and a firmer stool, and it is part of why crude fibre converts to between 4.7% and 6.2% of dry matter.

Sunflower oil and fish oil supply the added fats. Fish oil brings omega-3 and omega-6 and is a good thing to see, though it does mean none of the three recipes is a purely poultry list. Every label prints glucosamine and chondroitin with their inclusions. The levels read as a supportive extra for an older dog, not as a joint treatment, and if your dog has a diagnosed problem, keep to the dose your vet set.

The tail is the familiar Ava arrangement. Prebiotic yeast at 0.055% and chicory root extract at 0.02% feed the useful bacteria in the gut. Yucca, cranberry, pomegranate and green tea appear at trace level, and no more than that. Vitamin E is dosed at 105 mg and calcium converts to between 1.26% and 1.34% of dry matter across the three. Protein hydrolysates carry the trace elements, a chelated form the gut takes up better than a plain mineral salt.

The medium breed version is the leanest of the three, with fat converting to 19.0% of dry matter and energy declared at 87 kcal per 100g. It suits a steady dog. Carbohydrate is the trade-off, estimated at 33.4% of dry matter and the highest in the range. It shares the 140 g size with the large breed recipe and is portioned for dogs of 7 to 25 kg.

The medium and large breed versions are £7.35 a kilo in a 140 g size sold by the 10. The small breed version is £10.09 a kilo in an 85 g size sold by the 12.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition as the reference, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). On that basis the large breed recipe works out at £6.94 a day, the medium at £7.10 and the small at £8.74. That comes to roughly 944, 966 and 866 grams a day respectively. A dog of that weight would be fed the medium breed version.