Eden Semi-Moist: Salmon & Quail review

Our Good band takes all three recipes, and they land close together. Pick by the animal that suits your dog, because the order of the names tells you very little. All three read Good for protein and processing and Outstanding for how much the label declares, bar Duck And Tripe a shade back at Excellent, with nutritional balance settling at Average across the range. Semi-moist has no crowd of its own to be placed in. The band is simply this food's own reading, with no finishing position behind it.

Ingredients, as declared: 26% Salmon (dried), 21% Quail, Sweet Potato (dried), Vegetable Glycerine, 6% Pork Fat, 5% Venison, Tapioca (dried), Lucerne (dried), 2% Pork Liver, Chickpeas (dried), Pumpkin (dried), 0.07% Apple (dried), 0.07% Blackberry (dried), Celery (dried), Chicory (dried), 0.03% Glucosamine, 0.03% Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), 0.03% Chondroitin Sulphate.

Semi-moist earns its name honestly here. Moisture is declared at 18% on all three recipes, enough to keep every piece pliable. Vegetable glycerine does that work. It is a humectant, holding softness in the bag without inviting the food to spoil. It is also faintly sweet, and that is part of why soft foods tend to go down well with picky eaters. What you gain over a tray is that the bag still pours, portions and stores like a dry food.

The meat is named, split and percentaged all the way down each list. Country Feast opens with 19.5% lamb and 17% duck before adding 10.25% dried duck protein, 4% dried rabbit, 3% dried lamb and 1.5% venison. Duck And Tripe puts 40% fresh duck at the front with 15% dried duck and 4% tripe behind it. Salmon & Quail runs 26% dried salmon alongside 21% quail and 5% venison. Water has already gone from the dried entries. Weight for weight they put more animal into the finished piece than a fresh line does.

Nothing cereal appears anywhere. On the plant side it is sweet potato first, then tapioca and chickpeas. Lucerne and pea fibre supply the roughage. Tapioca deserves an honest word: it is close to pure starch and brings little beyond energy, so it is there to build the piece rather than to feed the dog. Estimated carbohydrate lands at 41.4% of dry matter on Country Feast and Duck And Tripe and 38.5% on Salmon & Quail, with protein converting to between 26.8% and 29.9% across the three.

The tail of each list is where Eden puts its detail to work. Glucosamine and MSM arrive at 0.03% on every recipe, with chondroitin sulphate at 0.03% on two of them and 0.02% on Duck And Tripe. Dried seaweed, green lipped mussel and spirulina sit at 0.07% and below on Country Feast and Duck And Tripe, there for what they carry. Garlic keeps the same fractional company, at the measured end of the scale and nowhere near the doses that gave it its reputation.

Eden prints the added panel in full: vitamin A at 18000 IU per kilo, vitamin D3 at 1800 IU, vitamin E at 150 mg and taurine at 1000 mg. Taurine is a heart-supporting amino acid, and a meat-led recipe is better for carrying it. Trace minerals arrive as amino acid chelates, the form usually chosen because it absorbs well, and the zinc dose doubles on Salmon & Quail.

The only fish-led recipe, with 26% dried salmon ahead of 21% quail, then 6% pork fat, 5% venison and 2% pork liver. Quail and venison rarely turn up in dog food. Try this label on a dog bored of the everyday meats, though the pork entries mean it is not a two-animal label. It also runs the leanest on fibre at 2.4% of dry matter and carries the lightest carbohydrate estimate in the range at 38.5%.

All three recipes are £8 a kilo, sold in a 100g sample, a 2kg bag and a 10kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 252 to 255 grams a day depending on recipe, working from roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to between £2.02 and £2.04 a day. Eden's own chart feeds 218 grams a day at the same weight.