Cobbydog Grain Free Wet Trays: Duck & Vegetable review

The lamb and the duck trays come to rest in our Outstanding band, with the chicken tray a step behind them in Excellent. The typical adult wet food reaches our Excellent band, so all three are at least level with it and two are a step clear.

What puts them there is a plain construction: one named animal at 60%, with potato and peas instead of cereal. Estimated carbohydrate runs between 6.0% and 16.0% of dry matter, where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck (60%), Dried Potato, Dried Peas, Sunflower Oil, Dried Carrot, Salmon Oil (0.3%), Tomato Pomace, Dried Kelp, Dried Basil, Yucca Extract (0.005%).

One animal, 60%, printed at the head of every list. On a wet food, that single figure is the one to read. Nothing else animal derived sits behind it apart from salmon oil, so what you read is what your dog gets.

The starch is dried potato and dried peas. Dried carrot sits alongside. Carrots are a dense source of vitamin A, and whole peas bring fibre and antioxidants, plus a useful amount of plant protein. The chicken tray goes one step further and adds potato starch. That is the binding, pure starch part of the potato, and it is the one entry in the range doing a job of texture.

The fats are named and sensible. Of the plant oils, sunflower is a good one to see, low on saturated fat and high in vitamin E. Salmon oil comes in at 0.2% on the chicken tray and 0.3% on the other two, and it brings the omega oils that skin and coat run on. The dose is small, and the label names it. Plenty of labels do not.

The tails of the three lists diverge slightly. The chicken tray finishes with tomato pomace, chicory, yucca at 0.015%, dried blackcurrant, rosemary and pomegranate, giving it the fruit and the prebiotic chicory root. The duck and lamb trays swap in dried kelp and dried basil, kelp being a natural source of iodine and other minerals, and drop the yucca to 0.005%.

The added panel is dosed but short, running vitamins A, D3 and E ahead of zinc, iron and manganese, with copper joining on the duck tray only. Iodine and selenium are not named on any of the three, and the vitamin figures move about between labels. Much of the micronutrition in a meat led recipe comes from the ingredients themselves, so the gap here is in the declaration.

Duck at 60%, a rich and highly digestible meat that suits a dog which has reacted to the more everyday birds. At an estimated 120 kcal per 100g it is the most energy dense tray, so portions are the smallest here. Copper is printed in its added panel, and no other label in the range does that.

Sold in a 395g tray, in packs of 4 and 18. We hold no current per kilo figure for this range, so the guide below is by weight only.

About 840 kcal a day is what a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly 699 to 764 grams a day depending on which recipe you feed.