Fleischeslust Hypoallergenic Sausage: Goat review

This recipe reaches our Outstanding band. The typical adult wet food carries an Excellent band of its own, so the recipe stands one step above the middle of a category that already scores well for us. What lifts it clear is the declared 75% animal share, with both species and their cuts named, and protein converting to 46.1% of dry matter. Carbohydrate is estimated at 13.3% of dry matter, where the typical adult wet food runs at 15.8%. Nutritional balance and transparency each read Outstanding, and protein and processing is not far behind at Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: 38 % goat (offal), 37 % lamb (meat, lung, tripe), 8.5 % broth, 4 % blueberry, 3.4 % pumpkin, 3.4 % swede, potato starch, minerals, eggshell meal, brewer's yeast, 0.1 % thyme, 0.1 % nettle, yucca root, 0.1 % linseed oil.

Between them, goat at 38% and lamb at 37% are three quarters of the recipe, and the label says which parts of each animal are in there. The goat entry is offal, while the lamb brings meat, lung and tripe. Offal is the most nutrient-dense material in any carcass, and tripe in particular is easy on a dog's digestion. The mix is a considered one, not a bin for the odds and ends.

The hypoallergenic claim needs reading as the maker means it. Nothing here is hydrolysed and nothing is stripped back to a single animal. The thinking is simply that a dog which has been eating chicken, beef or fish all its life is unlikely to have met goat. Lamb is less common in wet food than the poultry that fills most shelves. That works beautifully for a dog with no lamb history, and not at all for a dog that already reacts to it.

Broth at 8.5% carries a figure of its own, and the plant side is short: blueberry at 4%, pumpkin and swede at 3.4% each, and potato starch to bind. Carbohydrate converting to an estimated 13.3% of dry matter is low even by the standards of wet food, which is what you would want from a recipe aimed at a dog with a temperamental gut.

The last few entries are quiet ones. Thyme and nettle at 0.1% each and linseed oil at 0.1% are seasoning-level inclusions rather than working doses, though linseed does bring some plant omega-3 with it. Brewer's yeast carries natural B vitamins, eggshell meal and the minerals put calcium at 0.74% of dry matter, and yucca root closes the list.

The analysis is rich by wet food standards, with fat at 30.5% of dry matter and 133 kcal per 100g. That suits a dog struggling to hold condition, and it means a dog on the round side needs the portion measured rather than guessed.

Two sizes, 400 g and 800 g, with trays of 16 x 400 g and 12 x 800 g for anyone buying a run of it.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would get through roughly 632 grams a day, taken from a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's own guide asks for 670 to 910 grams a day at 20kg.