Collards Wet Dog Food Tray Adult: Salmon & Rice review

Four of the six trays finish in our Excellent band, with the Chicken & Potato a step above them in Outstanding and the White Fish & Potato a step below in Good. That is a strong result in a category where wet food generally does well. Two things earn it: a named animal at 60%, and an ingredient list where no entry hides behind a category term.

The typical adult wet food occupies our Excellent band, so most of this line is holding level with it and the chicken tray is pulling ahead. The brake is the plant share. With potatoes at 25% or brown rice at 20%, estimated carbohydrate runs from 12.0% to 21.7% of dry matter where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%. Calcium is not declared either, a blank on the paperwork and not a problem in the tray.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 60%, Brown Rice 20%, Carrots 5%, Peas 5%, Potatoes 5%, Minerals, Sunflower Oil, Salmon Oil, Dried Kelp and Basil.

Sixty per cent of one named animal opens every list, and the range takes in chicken, duck, lamb, salmon, turkey and white fish. That is the figure worth looking for on a wet label, and there is no second animal hiding behind it on any of the six recipes.

The carrier splits the range in two. Chicken & Potato and White Fish & Potato use potatoes at 25%, which makes them grain free, while the other four use brown rice at 20% with potatoes dropping to 5% alongside. Potato is mostly starch, brown rice is a wholegrain that brings a little fibre with it, and either way this is a bigger plant share than a meat and jelly recipe carries.

Carrots and peas at 5% each are real quantities, not decoration. Carrots bring antioxidants and vitamin A, with soluble fibre as well. Peas are there for fibre and for a spread of vitamins and minerals. Both are digestible once cooked.

Two oils sit behind the food itself. Sunflower oil is among the better plant oils, low in saturated fat, and it carries vitamin E naturally. Salmon oil supplies the omega oils for skin and coat. Dried kelp and basil close each list, kelp being a mineral rich seaweed and a natural iodine source.

The added panel is dosed in print and includes something most wet labels leave out, a B vitamin complex. Vitamins A, D3 and E are there with the usual trace elements. Selenium comes as sodium selenite, which is the standard supplemented form across the industry. Calcium is not declared on any of the six.

Salmon at 60%, with the species named on the label and not left as fish. That is exactly what a dog on a fish based diet needs to see. It is one of the richer trays, with fat converting to 32.1% of dry matter and energy estimated at 127 kcal per 100g.

The White Fish & Potato tray is £4.25 a kilo. There is no current per kilo figure to quote against the other five recipes. All six come in a 400g plastic tray.

As a guide, take 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is between 626 and 878 grams a day depending on how rich the recipe is, or £3.73 a day on the White Fish & Potato.