Forthglade Complete Meal with Brown Rice Adult: Chicken review

Three of the four read Excellent, level with the middle of the wet category where the typical adult wet food carries the same band, while the ocean fish sits a step below it in Good. The label is doing most of the lifting. There is 75% of one named animal, a percentage against the rice, the vegetables and even the yucca, and a joint pair and vitamin panel with figures attached. Transparency reads Outstanding on all four. Ocean Fish is the odd one out, its carbohydrate estimate running well above the 15.8% of dry matter typical of wet food, and it is the one recipe to finish a step behind its siblings.

The chicken, lamb and turkey recipes read Excellent for protein and processing, while Ocean Fish reads Good. That difference sits entirely in the naming, since an unspecified fish tells a scoring system less than a named meat does.

Ingredients, as declared: Adult recipe (1 year+): Chicken (75%)*, Brown Rice (4%)*, Carrots (2%)*, Peas (2%)*, Minerals, Linseed Oil (0.5%)*, Dried Seaweed (0.45%)*, Herbs (Camomile, Parsley, Rosemary, Nettle) (0.12%)*, Glucosamine (50mg/kg), Chondroitin (50mg/kg), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic Fructo-oligosaccharide (0.05%)*, Yucca Extract (0.005%)*. *natural ingredient

The animal share is 75% on every label, and the chicken, lamb and turkey recipes hold no other animal ingredient at all. The added oil is linseed, which is what allows those three to hold a single-animal diet. Ocean Fish is the exception, and not because anything is hidden. Fish is simply written as a category, so the label gives no help to a dog that reacts to one fish in particular.

The only cereal is brown rice at 4%, a wholegrain, so it brings some fibre and B vitamins along with its starch. Carrots and peas at 2% each sit alongside it. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 17.8% of dry matter on the lamb and turkey and 21.4% on the chicken, all of them in the ordinary range for a wet meal. Ocean Fish reads 33.9%, higher because the fish itself brings much less fat to the recipe.

Glucosamine and chondroitin are declared at 50 mg/kg each, on an adult food rather than a senior one, which reads as a maintenance gesture for dogs whose joints have plenty of years left in them. Dried seaweed at 0.45% brings iodine and trace minerals. Chicory root extract at 0.05% is named on the label as a prebiotic fructo-oligosaccharide, spelled out in full.

The herb blend at 0.12% names camomile, parsley, rosemary and nettle in full, and yucca extract closes each list at 0.005%. Small inclusions, and honestly declared ones.

The added panel matches across the four. Vitamin A is dosed at 2,500 IU, with vitamin D3 at 200 IU and vitamin E at 30 mg. Zinc follows at 50 mg, iron at 10 mg, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg per kilo. The minerals are chelated to glycine or to amino acids, and a chelate is usually taken up more easily than a plain salt.

Chicken at 75%, with protein converting to 39.3% of dry matter and energy to an estimated 123 kcal per 100g. It carries a little more carbohydrate than the lamb and turkey at an estimated 21.4% of dry matter, and its ash is the lowest in the range at 10.7%.

£4.43 a kilo on every recipe, sold in boxes of 18 and 36 trays.

As a guide, take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition from a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day, or 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That is roughly 682 grams a day on the chicken at about £3.02, 687 on the lamb at £3.05, 701 on the turkey at £3.11 and 776 on the ocean fish at £3.44.