Ci Foods Ci Top Drawer Adult: Fish & Brown Rice review

Four of the seven trays finish in our Excellent band, with the Chicken & Tripe, the Fish and the Turkey a step back in Good. Not one of the seven is a weak link. The typical adult wet food comes to rest in that Excellent band too, and the leading trays hold their own beside it. A named animal at 60% on every label and a small rice share leave protein converting to between 35.0% and 48.0% of dry matter.

Carbohydrate is where the seven separate a little. It runs from an estimated 8.0% of dry matter on the chicken and duck tray up to 23.4% on the duck, against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. What holds the range short of the very top is the supporting detail. Calcium is nowhere on the analysis, and the added panels vary between trays when the recipes themselves do not.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon (30%), White Fish (30%), Brown Rice (5%), Dried Peas (1.3% equivalent to 4% Peas), Dried Carrots (1.3% equivalent to 10% Carrots), Fish Oil, Dried Basil, Dried Parsley, Dried Rosemary, Dried Mint, Dried Sage, Minerals, High Nucleotide Yeast Extract (0.015%), Seaweed Meal, Glucosamine (0.004%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.002%), Cranberry (0.002%), Yucca Schidigera (0.025%)

Every list starts the same way, with 60% of the named animal, whether that is one species or two sharing the figure between them. Fresh meat of this kind is the thing you are paying for in a wet food, and all seven labels spell it out by name.

Behind the meat the plant side stays deliberately small. The only cereal is brown rice at 5%, a wholegrain that cooks down easily and carries a little fibre with it. Dried peas and dried carrots follow at 1.3% each, and each is declared against its fresh weight, 4% peas and 10% carrots. Carrots bring vitamin A and antioxidants, and at these levels they are a genuine part of the recipe rather than a picture on the front.

Fish oil sits on every list for its omega oils, followed by dried basil, parsley, rosemary, mint and sage. Rosemary does double duty here. The extract in it is a natural antioxidant, and it slows the fats going stale.

The tail of each list is the same short set of working extras. High nucleotide yeast extract sits at 0.015%, seaweed meal brings minerals and iodine, glucosamine is at 0.004% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.002%, with cranberry at 0.002% and yucca schidigera at 0.025%. The joint pair is named but not dosed to work, so a dog with diagnosed joint trouble is best kept on the plan the vet has already set.

The added vitamins and trace elements are printed with their doses, which is more than many wet labels manage, though the panels are not identical across the seven. The fish and turkey trays print no vitamin D3 and no selenium where the other five do, and calcium is not declared anywhere in the range. None of that changes what is in the tray, but it does leave a couple of blanks for anyone building a diet to a target.

Salmon at 30% and white fish at 30%. White fish is what the label says, with no species named, so a strict avoidance list needs more from the maker. This is the leanest tray in the range, with fat converting to 18.0% of dry matter and energy estimated at 94 kcal per 100g, which suits a dog that finds richer wet food too much.

The Chicken & Brown Rice and Turkey & Brown Rice trays are £6.08 a kilo and the other five are £6.58, all in the same 395g tray.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 629 and 892 grams a day here, depending on how rich the tray is, which comes to between £4.14 and £5.87. That works from about 840 kcal a day, the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75).