Fleischeslust Classic Menu Senior: Chicken with Beef, Sweet Potatoes, Rosehips and Ginko review

Wet food does well on our scoring, and our Outstanding band sits one step above the typical adult wet food. This recipe finishes some way clear of that middle mark. The reasons are all on the label. Three quarters of the recipe is named animal, with every cut written out, and protein converts to 49.8% of dry matter. The carbohydrate estimate lands at 15.5% of dry matter, where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%. That shows up in the pillars, with nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding and protein and processing Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: 42 % chicken (meat, stomachs, hearts), 33 % beef (lungs, liver, tripe), 9 % broth, 5 % carrot, 3.3 % sweet potato, potato starch, minerals, 0.2 % rose hip, 0.1 % salmon oil, 0.1 % spirulina, 0.1 % ginkgo, 0.1 % devil's claw, brewer's yeast, yucca root, eggshell meal.

The animal content is the whole argument here. Chicken at 42% brings meat, stomachs and hearts, beef at 33% brings lungs, liver and tripe, and between them they make up three quarters of the recipe with every part named. Organ meat carries far more vitamin and mineral value than muscle alone. Few things a maker can put in a bowl are richer than liver. Protein converting to 49.8% of dry matter is the result.

Broth at 9% is declared as broth, and not slipped in as water. Behind it the plant side stays short, with carrot at 5%, sweet potato at 3.3% and potato starch to hold the recipe together. Potato starch is starch and nothing else, but at this level it is there to bind, and the carbohydrate estimate settles at 15.5% of dry matter.

The senior signature sits at the tail of the list. Rose hip comes in at 0.2%, with ginkgo and devil's claw at 0.1% each, and devil's claw is a genuine herbal ingredient for stiff joints that most makers leave out altogether. At these levels all three read as a considered gesture, well short of a working dose. An older dog with a diagnosed joint problem stays on whatever the vet has prescribed, and this is the dinner underneath.

Salmon oil and spirulina each appear at 0.1%, and brewer's yeast brings natural B vitamins along with a little extra protein. Eggshell meal works with the mineral premix to put calcium at 0.87% of dry matter, a comfortable level for an adult dog. Yucca root is last on the list. A small amount of it softens the smell of what ends up on the lawn.

Sold in 400 g and 800 g, and by the tray in 16 x 400 g and 12 x 800 g.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 650 grams a day of this recipe, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). For a 20kg dog the label asks for 690 to 940 grams a day.