Butchers Lean & Tasty Can: With Beef, Rice & Veg review

These tins reach our Outstanding band by a different route from most wet foods that do well. They do not get there on fat: fat stops at 16.7% of dry matter, which is roughly half what a rich wet food carries, and the protein is left standing at 50.0%. The middle of the wet category lands a band lower in Excellent, and this range finishes clear of it.

The chicken recipe reads Outstanding on protein and processing where the other two read Excellent, the strongest single reading of the three.

Ingredients, as declared: British and Irish Farmed Meats (Chicken 27%, Beef 23%), Broth 41% (Including Water and Dried Seaweed), Cooked Wholegrain Rice 3.5%, Carrots 2.3%, Green Beans 1.7%, Minerals, Parsley, Chicory Root, Rosehip, Mint.

Chicken and beef are the meats throughout, declared as British and Irish farmed and given percentages that shift between recipes rather than disappearing into a category term. In the chicken tin the split is 35.5% chicken to 14.5% beef; in the beef tin it is 27% chicken to 23% beef. Whichever animal the label sells, both are in the tin.

Broth at 41% follows, declared as broth with a figure attached, and the dried seaweed in it contributes iodine and trace minerals. Together with the meat's own water it is why the tins read 82% moisture, and part of why they carry so few calories per 100g.

The only grain here is cooked wholegrain rice at 3.5%, and a small share at that. Whole rice is among the gentlest starches on a dog's stomach. It does two jobs here, thickening the tin and adding a modest amount of energy to a recipe that has deliberately taken fat out.

The vegetables change with the flavour and stay small, carrots at 2.3% with green beans or peas at 1.7%, or carrots alone at 4%. They bring fibre and a little bulk, which is welcome in a food fed to dogs who would like more of it. The list ends on parsley, chicory root, rosehip and mint. Chicory root is the one supplying prebiotic inulin.

L-carnitine at 200 mg per kilo is the functional addition, and it is a fair one to include. Carnitine ferries fatty acids into the cells that burn them, and that is why lighter diets so often carry it. It works alongside a controlled portion, never in place of one. On the analysis, ash reads 13.9% of dry matter and fibre 1.1%, and the tins are 82% moisture.

Beef at 23% with chicken at 27%, the most beef forward tin of the three, with carrots at 2.3% and green beans at 1.7% behind the rice. Its panel prints vitamin D3 at 250 I.U. per kilo, matching the chicken recipe.

These are 390g cans, in packs of 6, 12 and 18.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 1124 grams a day, close to three cans, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Light wet tins take large daily portions, which is why many owners serve them alongside a measured dry food.