Eden Sporting & Working Wet: Country Cuisine review

The three recipes finish within a whisker of one another, all inside our Excellent band, and they get there with a label that genuinely itemises itself. Protein and processing reads Excellent across the range, nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, and value reads Excellent as well. Excellent is a crowded band on the wet shelf, so how this food gets there is what deserves attention. Meat runs to 70%, the broth is counted and not hidden as water, and every berry and botanical gets a number of its own. That is an unusually open label for a wet food.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 20%, Venison 20%, Rabbit 15%, Duck 15%, Broth: 26%, Vegetables: Peas 0.3%, Sweet Potato 0.2%, Carrots 0.2%, Fruits: Blueberries 0.5%, Goji Berries 0.5%, Minerals, Oils and Fats: Linseed Oil 0.2%, Botanicals: Turmeric 0.1%, MOS 0.1%, FOS 0.1%, Glucosamine 0.01%, Chondroitin 0.01%.

The meat comes to 70% on all three recipes and it is spelled out in full. Country Cuisine splits it four ways, lamb at 20%, venison at 20%, rabbit at 15% and duck at 15%, while the other two lead with a bird at 55% and add a fish at 15%. Broth at 26% follows, declared as broth rather than passed off as water. Protein converts to between 46.5% and 50.0% of dry matter, and fat to between 24.1% and 29.1%.

The plant side is tiny and every part of it is counted: peas at 0.3%, sweet potato at 0.2% and carrots at 0.2%, with blueberries and goji berries at 0.5% each. Linseed oil at 0.2% adds plant omega-3 and turmeric at 0.1% is the botanical finish. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 10.0% to 15.9% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. We work that estimate out by difference, so it carries anything the analysis does not name.

MOS and FOS appear at 0.1% each, the familiar prebiotic pair that encourages friendly bacteria in the large intestine. Glucosamine and chondroitin follow at 0.01% each. Most wet labels print neither, so a name and a figure both count for something here. Where a vet has set a joint dose, that dose stays and this is simply the dinner beneath it.

The added panel is the most complete thing on the label and it is where this range pulls away from the wet shelf generally. Vitamin D3 at 200 I.U. and vitamin E at 20 I.E. are joined by a full B group, with B1 at 10 mg, B2 at 6 mg, B3 at 15 mg, B5 at 9 mg, B6 at 2 mg and B12 at 75 mcg. Folic acid at 0.35 mg, biotin at 300 mcg and choline chloride at 1200 mg follow. Zinc and manganese arrive as glycine chelates, which a dog tends to absorb more readily than a plain sulphate.

One figure on these labels deserves a raised eyebrow. The declared energy runs at 142 to 144 kcal per 100g, which is high for a food carrying this much moisture, and the maker's own feeding guide is heavier again than that figure would suggest. Both figures are printed here as they stand, and your own dog is the better guide to the right amount.

The four animal recipe, with lamb at 20%, venison at 20%, rabbit at 15% and duck at 15%. It is the only one in the range without a fish in it, and its transparency reads Outstanding, with protein at 46.5% of dry matter and fat at 29.1%. Venison and rabbit together make it the most unusual plate of the three.

£7.25 a kilo across all three recipes.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats roughly 583 to 592 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to between £4.23 and £4.29 a day. The label's own guide for a 15 kg dog is 1021 grams a day, and a genuinely hard working dog will sit closer to that end than to the estimate.