Chudleys Complete Wet Working Dog: Chicken & Veg review

All four recipes come to rest in our Good band, Chicken & Veg at the front of them and Beef & Chicken at the back. Nothing much divides the four, so the choice in front of you is an animal, not a quality level.

Our scoring rates the wet category highly, and the typical adult wet food is an Excellent band food itself, a step ahead of where these four finish. The reason is construction. Nothing in the recipe itself is troubling. Rice and oats give this range a carbohydrate share that a straight meat and jelly recipe does not carry. On two of the labels it reaches an estimated 19.6% of dry matter, where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%. In exchange you get a food built to keep a busy dog going, and the protein and fat figures show where the priority sits.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (21%), Beef (19%), Lamb (11%), Brown Rice (5%), Naked Oats (2.5%), Dried Sweet Potato (1% equivalent to 4% Sweet Potato), Dried Peas (0.6%, equivalent to 2% Peas), Minerals, Fish Oil (0.5%), Dried Rosemary, Dried Seaweed (0.3%), Yeasts (0.03% a source of Mannan-oligosaccharides), FOS (0.03%), Glucosamine (0.004%), Chondroitin (0.002%), Yucca Extract (0.002%), Cranberry Extract (0.002%).

Named meat leads every list and each entry brings its own figure. Chicken runs from 21% to 36% across the four, with beef, tripe, lamb, turkey, liver and white fish filling in behind it. Protein converts to between 39.1% and 43.5% of dry matter and fat to between 26.1% and 30.4%. That is a properly meat led analysis for a food fed wet.

The plant side is small and printed. Brown rice comes in at 5% and naked oats at 2.5%, with dried sweet potato at 1% and dried peas at 0.6%. Both are declared with the fresh weight they stand in for, 4% sweet potato and 2% peas. Oats bring fibre and a slow release of energy, and the rice is the steady, familiar carrier a working recipe tends to reach for.

Behind the food itself is a short row of working extras. Fish oil at 0.5% brings omega oils, dried seaweed at 0.3% is a natural source of minerals including iodine, and yeast at 0.03% and FOS at 0.03% are prebiotics aimed at the gut. Yucca extract and cranberry close the list at 0.002% each, both at levels you would call a garnish.

Glucosamine at 0.004% and chondroitin at 0.002% are printed rather than dosed. Both turn up naturally in meat and cartilage anyway, so a meat heavy recipe carries some regardless. Read what is on the label as a nod to the joints of a hard working dog, not as a treatment.

The added panel is short, and it prints a figure beside every entry, from vitamins A, D3 and E through zinc, iron, copper, manganese, iodine and selenium. Calcium is not declared on these labels, which is worth a mention only if you are building a diet to a target.

The name says Chicken & Veg, while the list reads chicken at 21%, beef at 19% and lamb at 11%, with dried sweet potato and dried peas the only vegetables named. Take the ingredients as the guide here. It carries the most fat at 30.4% and shares the lowest estimated carbohydrate in the range, 10.9% of dry matter. That makes it the richest of the four.

£3.35 a kilo across all four recipes, in one 395g size that comes in packs of 12.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through between 814 and 855 grams a day depending on the recipe, which comes to between £2.73 and £2.87. Those figures rest on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own guide for a dog between 10kg and 25kg runs from 790 to 1580 grams a day.