Calibra Life Sensitive Monoprotein Cans review

This can lands in our Excellent band, and it gets there on the things a sensitive diet is bought for. One named meat sits at a high, printed percentage, the list is short enough to check in seconds, and the protein at the head of it is genuinely novel. The typical adult wet food reaches the same band, since we score the wet category well, so this is a solid performer rather than a leap ahead of the shelf.

Nutritional balance reads Excellent and transparency Outstanding, with value also Excellent and protein and processing at Good. What stops it climbing further is the analysis rather than the label. Fat is deliberately low and the carbohydrate estimate is correspondingly high, which is what happens when a recipe is kept lean and the figure is worked out by difference. For a dog whose stomach dictates the shopping, that trade is usually the right one.

Ingredients, as declared: rabbit (70 %), pea flour, lignocellulose, salmon oil (1 %), calcium carbonate, dried algae (0.2 %, Schizochytrium limacinum).

Rabbit at 70% is the whole story here. It is a highly digestible meat and, more to the point, one that very few dogs have ever eaten. Recipes for dogs with a history of dietary trouble reach for it precisely because of that. A dog cannot react to an animal it has never met, and that is the thinking behind the choice.

Behind it the list is deliberately plain. Pea flour brings a little plant protein, iron and fibre. Lignocellulose is a purified powder of plant fibre that adds bulk and steadies the gut. Neither carries a percentage, so the plant share is a matter of trust.

Salmon oil at 1% supplies marine omega-3 and dried algae at 0.2% adds more of the same from a plant source, since Schizochytrium is grown specifically for its long chain fatty acids. Both are sensible inclusions for skin and coat, and both are the reason this can is not free of marine ingredients even though it is free of every meat but rabbit.

Calcium carbonate closes the list and brings calcium to 1.36% of dry matter. The added panel is fully dosed, vitamins A, D3, E and B1 with biotin alongside zinc, manganese, iodine, copper and iron. Protein converts to 38.6% of dry matter and fat to a modest 13.6%, so this is a can that leads with meat while staying light on the richness.

£7.38 a kilo, in 400g cans sold in packs of 6.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition that comes to roughly 939 grams a day and about £6.93, based on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The daily amount looks large because the can is light in energy at 90 kcal per 100g, and many owners feed a wet food like this alongside something drier.