Coya Kibble Plus: Turkey review

Across the three recipes our scoring settles at the upper end of our Good band, which is also where the average adult dry recipe sits. What lifts them is consistent. A large declared share of one named animal heads each list, and the starch load stays moderate. The label itemises almost everything down to fractions of a percent, including the fruit extracts that most makers leave vague. What separates the three is how much protein and fat each carries. Choose on the animal that suits your dog, not on the band it earned.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 62% (Freshly Prepared Turkey 24%, Turkey Meal 23%, Freeze-Dried Turkey Bites 8%, Turkey Fat 7%), Potato, Sweet Potato, Peas (4%), Vegetable Gravy, Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil, Minerals, Dried Carrot (0.5% Equivalent to 4% Carrot), Prebiotic MOS (0.2%) Cranberry Extract (0.015%), Blueberry Powder (0.015%), Marigold Meal, Turmeric, Dried Spearmint. Calming Botanical Pack : Nettle, Rosehip, Chamomile and Lemon Balm; Green Freeze-Dried Pieces (1.5%) : including Swede, Beetroot, Flaxseed, Potato, Mint, Apple, Pear, Kelp; Red Freeze-Dried Pieces (1.5%) : including Swede, Beetroot, Flaxseed, Potato, Raspberry, Cranberry, Strawberry, Tomato.

The meat in each bag arrives in four forms and it pays to know what each one does. Freshly prepared meat leads at 24%. It is largely water, and that water disappears in the oven, so what reaches the finished kibble is less than the number suggests. Behind it sits a dried meal of the same animal, which is already water-free and therefore carries its weight honestly, plus that animal's own fat. Then come the freeze-dried bites at 8%, which are never cooked at all and go into the bag whole.

Binding duty falls to potato and sweet potato, with peas at 4% behind them. No grain appears in any of the three recipes, and no unnamed vegetable term does either, so the plant side reads as clearly as the meat side.

The digestive thinking is easy to spot. Beet pulp supplies the gentle fibre, and prebiotic MOS at 0.2% feeds the useful bacteria lower down the gut. Dried carrot at 0.5%, which the label helpfully notes is the equivalent of 4% fresh carrot, adds a little soluble fibre with it. Salmon oil brings the omegas, and it is why none of these recipes is fish free.

The rest of the tail is flourish more than substance, and the numbers the label prints prove as much. Cranberry extract and blueberry powder are both declared at 0.015%, marigold meal, turmeric and dried spearmint follow, and the calming botanical pack of nettle, rosehip, chamomile and lemon balm carries no dose at all. The green and red freeze-dried pieces at 1.5% each are the exception, since they are real swede, beetroot, flaxseed and fruit going in whole. They do as much for the look and texture of the bowl as for the analysis.

Each added mineral carries a printed dose, more than many labels manage. Zinc is at 92 mg, iron at 55.8 mg, manganese at 46 mg, copper at 7.5 mg and iodine at 2.3 mg per kilo. Most of these are sulphate and oxide forms rather than the chelates a few makers use, though a small chelated share of the zinc is declared alongside. The selenium is the nicest detail, with part of it supplied as selenised yeast, a form generally taken up more readily than the standard salt.

Turkey declared at 62%, made up of freshly prepared turkey at 24%, turkey meal at 23%, freeze-dried turkey bites at 8% and turkey fat at 7%. At 26% protein and 14% fat, this is the leanest recipe in the range, with estimated carbohydrate at 46.1% of dry matter. That makes it the sensible choice for a dog carrying a little too much. Its nutritional balance reads Average where the other two read Good, and it finishes in our Good band.

£13.30 a kilo across all three recipes, sold in a 1.5kg bag or as five of those together.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 226 and 234 grams a day on about 840 kcal. That is the standard maintenance estimate, 110 × bodyweight^0.75, and it comes to between £3.01 and £3.11 a day. The label's own table asks 155 to 260 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so let your dog's shape have the final word.