Country Dog Premium Tins review

This tin lands in our Outstanding band, and wet food being the strong category it is, the typical adult wet food sits a band below it in Excellent. Country Dog earns its place on the meat, with the animal entries accounting for roughly two thirds of the tin. Estimated carbohydrate converts to 14.0% of dry matter where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding with protein and processing at Excellent, which is the profile of a label that declares its percentages and then backs them up in the analysis.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 48% (Including Liver), Turkey (17%), Rice (6%), Dried Peas (1%), Dried Sweet Potato (1%), Dried Carrots (0.5%), Minerals, Mixed Herbs, Prebiotic Mannan Oligosaccharides (0.01%), Glucosamine (0.004%), Chondroitin (0.002%), Dried Cranberries (0.002%), Yucca Extract (0.002%).

Chicken at 48% opens the list with its liver counted inside that figure, and turkey at 17% sits behind it. Little else a maker puts in a tin is as nutrient dense as liver, and few dogs need any persuading to eat it, so it does two jobs at once. Between them the two birds account for the bulk of the can, and protein converts to 40.0% of dry matter, which is a solid showing for wet food.

The plant side is deliberately slight. Only rice at 6% has any real weight to it. Dried peas come in at 1% or below, and so do the dried sweet potato and the dried carrots. That keeps the estimated carbohydrate to 14.0% of dry matter, a little under the 15.8% the typical adult wet food runs at. The starch here is holding the recipe together, not bulking it out.

After the food comes the flourish. Mannan oligosaccharides appear at 0.01% as a prebiotic, glucosamine at 0.004%, chondroitin at 0.002%, and dried cranberries and yucca extract at that same trace level. Each is printed with its own percentage, which is honest of the label, and at those amounts they read as a friendly gesture towards gut and joint support rather than a measured programme. If the vet has already put your dog on a joint supplement, stay with it, and this tin is the dinner underneath.

The added vitamins and trace elements are each given a figure, running from vitamin A and D3 through zinc, iron, copper, manganese and iodine to selenium. That is more detail than a great many tins print. The mixed herbs are the one entry left general. The maker is the one to ask about exactly which plants go into the blend.

Sold in 395g cans.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would work through about 729 grams a day, a little under two cans. That comes from a maintenance need of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard estimate) and our estimated energy figure of 115 kcal per 100g for these tins.