Ava Wet Food Mature review

The multipack and the single pâté both read Good, with an identical recipe in each. The middle of the wet category falls in our Excellent band, and wet is a strong field, so this pair sits a step under that midpoint. What separates the two shows on the pillars.

On the multipack, transparency comes back Outstanding and protein and processing Excellent, on the strength of naming the meat, counting it and printing percentages down to the last extract. Nutritional balance reads Good, and the reason is the share of dry matter that turns out to be carbohydrate instead of meat. On the single pâté, transparency holds at Outstanding with nutritional balance at Good and protein and processing at Average, though what your dog actually eats is unchanged.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken: Chicken (43%), Brown Rice (9%), 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 Mannanoligosaccharide) (0.028%), Glucosamine (0.018%), Chondroitin (0.008%), Yucca Extract (0.005%), Cranberry Extract (0.002%), Green Tea Extract (0.001%), Pomegranate Extract (0.001%), Lamb: Lamb (43%), Brown Rice (9%), 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 Mannanoligosaccharide) (0.028%), Glucosamine (0.018%), Chondroitin (0.008%), Yucca Extract (0.005%), Cranberry Extract (0.002%), Green Tea Extract (0.001%), Pomegranate Extract (0.001%).

Chicken or lamb at 43% opens each label in its fresh form. Lamb is the more interesting of the two for an older dog with a long history of poultry behind it, being highly palatable and easily digested. It also gives a household a second animal to rotate through without leaving the range. Protein converts to 31.8% of dry matter and fat to 22.7%.

Brown rice at 9% is the named starch, with beet pulp for fibre and brewers yeast alongside. The carbohydrate estimate lands at 35.5% of dry matter, above the 15.8% typical for adult wet food, which is the main thing keeping nutritional balance off the top mark.

Fish oil is the addition that earns its place in a senior recipe. It supplies the omega-3 fats that sit behind so much of the joint, skin and coat advice an older dog attracts. The label names it as fish oil, not as a general oils and fats term. Whole dried egg adds a little further protein.

The joint pair is printed openly, at 0.018% glucosamine and 0.008% chondroitin. Both occur naturally in meat and cartilage anyway, and the added amounts here are modest, so treat them as a small daily top-up rather than a treatment. If arthritis has been diagnosed, keep to the treatment your vet set and let this be the meal underneath it. A yeast fraction at 0.028% looks after the gut bacteria, with chicory root extract at 0.04% doing the same. Cranberry, pomegranate, yucca and green tea finish the list at trace level.

Minerals come high up the ingredient list and the figures bear that out, with crude ash at 9.1% of dry matter and calcium at 4.09%, a lot of mineral for a senior dog. Zinc at 16.05mg, copper at 2mg and manganese at 1.95mg are all chelated, usually the better absorbed form. Selenium is supplied as selenised yeast, not as the plain salt. The texture work in the pâté is done by carrageenan and guar gum, plus the sodium and potassium salts.

The six-tin multipack, and the only listing where the lamb recipe appears: chicken at 43% in one tin and lamb at 43% in the other, both over brown rice at 9% with fish oil. Transparency reads Outstanding here and protein and processing Excellent, with nutritional balance at Good.

In 395g tins, a six-pack works out at £5.48 a kilo. The chicken pâté on its own is £6.05 a kilo.

A 15kg dog in moderate condition would eat about 891 grams a day on either listing, taking 840 kcal a day as the maintenance requirement (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That is £4.88 from the multipack and £5.39 from single tins. That is a little over two tins a day.