Forthglade British Classics Complete Meal Adult: Hearty Turkey Stew review

The three recipes finish level in our Excellent band, which is where the middle of a category that scores well settles too, since the typical adult wet food carries an Excellent reading of its own. Protein and processing reads Excellent on the chicken and the lamb and Outstanding on the turkey. Transparency is Outstanding on all three: one named meat at 75%, a percentage beside every vegetable, and an added vitamin and trace element panel with a figure against every entry. Nutritional balance reads Excellent as well.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey Stew - Turkey (75%)*, Sweet Potato (3%)*, Parsnip (3%)*, Dried Carrots (1%, equivalent to 8%)*, Cranberries (0.5%)*, Minerals, Linseed Oil (0.5%)*, Dried Herbs (Parsley, Rosemary, Nettle, Camomile) (0.12%)*, Chicory Root Extract (0.05%)*, Yucca Extract (0.005%)*. *Natural ingredient

Each recipe is 75% of one named meat, and nothing else animal appears anywhere on the label. Even the oil is linseed. That is what makes a single-animal claim stand up, and it is why these trays can carry an exclusion diet where most wet food cannot.

The vegetables are all given percentages, and the dried ones are given twice. Dried potato at 3% on the chicken recipe is noted as equivalent to 12% rehydrated, dried carrots at 1% as equivalent to 8%. It is an honest way to write a label, since a dried ingredient weighs far less than the same vegetable did before the water came out. It does mean the plant share is larger than a quick read suggests. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 24.3% of dry matter on the chicken, with the turkey at 22.7% and the lamb at 14.3%.

Behind the vegetables sits a short row of working extras. The herb blend at 0.12% is named in full, parsley, rosemary, nettle and camomile, where most makers would write herbs and leave it there. Chicory root extract at 0.05% is a prebiotic, and yucca extract at 0.005% is a trace inclusion aimed at what comes out of the dog.

The added panel is properly dosed on all three labels. Vitamin A comes at 2,500 IU, vitamin D3 at 200 IU and vitamin E at 30 mg. Zinc is at 50 mg, iron at 10 mg, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg per kilo. Glycine chelation on the zinc, iron and copper usually means better absorption than plain mineral salts. That is a good detail to find on a recipe this simple.

One figure moves a lot between the three. Ash converts to 10.0% of dry matter on the chicken, 13.3% on the turkey, then jumps to 21.7% on the lamb. The lamb recipe carries considerably more mineral matter than its siblings, most likely from the bone that comes with the meat.

Turkey at 75% with sweet potato and parsnip at 3% each and cranberries at 0.5%, the only fruit anywhere in the range. It has the lowest fat of the three at 25.0% of dry matter, with ash between its siblings at 13.3%.

£5.44 a kilo across all three recipes, sold in boxes of 18 and 36 trays.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, assuming around 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That is roughly 636 grams a day on the chicken at about £3.46, 667 grams on the turkey at £3.63, and 701 grams on the lamb at £3.81. There are few calories in wet food for its weight, so the daily portion looks large beside a dry food, and plenty of owners serve it alongside one.