Butchers Recipes In Jelly Can: With Lamb & Kidney review

Each of the three tins comes out in our Good band, one directly on top of the other. That is what you would expect when the analysis panel is identical and only the second meat changes. Our Excellent band holds the middle of the wet category, a strong one on our scoring, so these sit just under the middle of a good shelf.

Read on what is declared, this is a strong wet recipe. Protein converts to 44.1% of dry matter, the estimated carbohydrate of 13.5% sits below the figure a typical adult wet food carries, and the meat comes with real percentages. It is the meat side of the reading rather than the label that keeps a lid on things, though there is still ground the tin leaves uncovered. Roughly half of each tin, the jelly included, is simply never described, and an offal entry without a species leaves an avoidance list guessing.

Ingredients, as declared: British and Irish Farmed Meats (Chicken 42%, Lamb 4%, Kidney 4%), Salmon Oil, Plant Fibres, Vitamins and Minerals, Chicory Root, MOS.

Chicken does the work in all three tins, at 42% in the beef and lamb recipes and 46% in the chicken one. It is British and Irish farmed, and its plain name on the list is the usual signal for fresh meat. That is a real share of animal content for a jellied tin, and it is why the protein figure holds up so well once the moisture is stripped out.

The second animal and the offal come in at 4% each: beef and liver, chicken and liver, or lamb and kidney. Liver and kidney are dense in the vitamins and minerals dogs get less of elsewhere, and both are highly palatable, which is part of the appeal of a tin like this. Neither is pinned to a species anywhere on the label.

After the meat the list runs short: salmon oil, plant fibres, vitamins and minerals, chicory root and MOS. Chicory root supplies inulin and MOS comes from yeast cell walls, so between them the tin carries two prebiotics that gut bacteria make use of. Plant fibres is the vaguest entry on the label, since it names no plant at all.

What the list never mentions is the jelly. Moisture is declared at 83% and the named ingredients account for about half the tin, so the setting agent and the liquid around the meat go undescribed. That is common on jellied tins and it is not a hygiene worry. It does mean the carbohydrate figure of 13.5% of dry matter is an estimate, worked out by difference from the analysis the label prints.

The added panel is fully dosed, with vitamin A at 1250 I.U., vitamin D3 at 250 I.U. and vitamin E at 13 mg, alongside zinc at 20 mg, manganese at 2.5 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg. Every figure is printed, which is a small mark of a label that is telling you what it can.

Chicken at 42% with lamb and kidney at 4% each. Kidney appears here alone, and so does lamb. That makes this the natural stop for a dog who has worked through the more usual meats.

Sold in 400g cans, in packs of 6, 12, 18 and 24.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, an energy estimate of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance calculation) comes to roughly 1024 grams. Call it two and a half cans and a little more. The maker puts a dog of that weight between 600 and 1000 grams.