Denes Adult Tripe Mix Tins review

This is the strongest of the Denes tins on our reading and it comes out in our Excellent band. Leaving the cereal out is what does it. With nothing starchy on the list the estimated carbohydrate converts to just 3.2% of dry matter, a fraction of the 15.8% the typical adult wet food runs at, and protein reaches 47.4% of dry matter. As a category wet scores well with us, and the typical tin is an Excellent band product itself. That makes this a strong performer inside a strong field, not a lone standout. Protein and processing reads Good, with nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding.

Ingredients, as declared: Beef tripe 22%, chicken 19%, turkey 14%, pork 6%, minerals, herbs (kelp, garlic and parsley), seaweed.

Four meats open the label and every one of them carries a figure: beef tripe at 22%, chicken at 19%, turkey at 14% and pork at 6%. Added up, that is 61% of the tin declared as animal, a lot for tinned food at this end of the shelf. It explains an analysis where protein converts to 47.4% of dry matter and fat to 36.8%.

Tripe is the ingredient people either swear by or wrinkle their nose at, and dogs are firmly in the first camp. Tripe is a ruminant's stomach lining, rich in protein and fat, easy on the digestion and unusually good at getting a reluctant dog to eat. Chicken and turkey give the tin a lighter, leaner backbone behind it, and pork rounds it out with a meat that is still relatively novel for most dogs.

What is not here matters as much as what is. There is no wheat, no rice and no vegetable bulk, so the estimated carbohydrate converts to only 3.2% of dry matter. Moisture is declared at 81.0%, the highest of the Denes tins, which is simply what a tin built from fresh meat and its own juices looks like.

The trimmings are minerals, a herb blend named as kelp, garlic and parsley, and seaweed. Kelp and seaweed between them supply iodine and a spread of trace minerals naturally, which matters here because the printed additive panel is short. Garlic is used at the small culinary levels that run through this brand's whole range, and it is the one entry some households will want to note.

The declared additives are vitamins A, D3 and E with copper as cupric sulphate, and nothing further. Zinc, iodine, manganese and selenium do not appear with figures, though the minerals entry in the composition and the seaweed will be contributing some of them. It is a short table for a food this well constructed, and it is the part of the tin you take on trust.

Each can holds 400g. They are sold singly and in cases of 12.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would get through roughly 902 grams a day, a shade over two cans. The basis is a maintenance need of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard estimate) set against our estimated energy figure of 93 kcal per 100g.

As captured, the tin's own feeding table does not scale sensibly. Start from the amount above and adjust it to your dog.