Collards Wet Dog Food Tray Older/Overweight: Lamb & Rice review

Our Good band takes in all four trays, the salmon and the turkey sitting a little higher in it than the duck and the lamb. Since the four share one analysis, that small gap is down to the animal at the head of the list rather than to anything else in the recipe.

The typical adult wet food sits in our Excellent band, and this line comes in a band lower. The label prints the reason plainly. Brown rice at 25% lifts estimated carbohydrate to 30.0% of dry matter, against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. The meat share steps down to 50% from where the brand's standard adult tray sits. For a dog that needs a lighter bowl without losing the protein, that trade is the entire point of the recipe.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 42%, Lamb Bone 8%, Brown Rice 25%, Carrots 5%, Peas 5%, Potatoes 5%, Minerals, Sunflower Oil, Salmon Oil, Dried Kelp, Chicory.

The animal at the head of the list takes 50% of the tray and is named to a species every time, whether that is duck, lamb, salmon or turkey. Nothing is hidden behind a category term, and this is still a meat led recipe by the standards of the shelf. Protein holds at 40.0% of dry matter. When a dog is losing weight, that is the figure that matters most.

Brown rice at 25% is the change that does the work. It is a wholegrain, so it brings fibre and a slower release of energy along with its starch, and it fills the tray in place of the fat that has been taken out. The result is a food where carbohydrate converts to 30.0% of dry matter, high for something served wet, and that is the honest trade behind the low fat figure.

Carrots, peas and potatoes at 5% each round out the plant side, every one of them named and counted. Carrots carry vitamin A and antioxidants. Peas bring fibre along with a spread of micronutrients. Potatoes bring a little more starch along with vitamin C and potassium.

Chicory is the one ingredient this range adds that the brand's adult tray does not. Inulin is what makes chicory root useful, a soluble fibre the gut's good bacteria feed on. In a recipe aimed at older dogs and slower digestions, that is a sensible thing to find. The fats come from sunflower oil and salmon oil, the salmon oil supplying the omega oils that ageing joints and coats appreciate.

The added panel is printed with doses and includes a B vitamin complex, a slightly more generous declaration than most wet labels give. Alongside it are vitamins A, D3 and E, zinc, manganese, selenium and iodine. Calcium is not declared, which is worth knowing only if you are building a diet to a number.

The 50% here is lamb at 42% with lamb bone at 8%, the only tray in this range to declare bone as a separate entry. Lamb is a red meat, so it is richer in the minerals that come with bone. Where a dog has gone off its food, it stays one of the most reliably palatable meats.

The Duck & Rice and Lamb & Rice trays are £4.25 a kilo. No current per kilo figure sits against the Salmon or the Turkey. All four come in a 400g plastic tray.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats 882 grams a day of any of these recipes, since the four share an energy figure. On the duck or the lamb that comes to £3.75 a day. The maintenance figure behind that is about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard estimate). Feed to lose weight and the figure comes down.