Forthglade Complete Senior Wholegrain: Lamb with Brown Rice review

Wet food rates well with us as a category. The lamb tray sits in our Excellent band, level with the typical adult wet food, and the white fish follows a step behind in Good. Transparency reads Outstanding on both trays, with protein and processing Excellent on the lamb and Good on the fish. The lamb reads Outstanding for nutritional balance and Excellent for value. The fish reads Excellent for nutritional balance and Good for value. Meat at 60% is a smaller share than the brand's adult wet recipes hold. The mineral content is high for wet food too, with ash converting to 18.2% of dry matter on the lamb and 16.0% on the fish. Set against that, the label declares a percentage for almost everything in the recipe and puts real figures against the joint supplements. That is what keeps the lamb tray up with the middle of the category.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb (60%), Brown Rice (6%), Carrots (4%), Peas (4%), Minerals, Chicory Root Extract (0.45%), Salmon Oil (0.15%), Linseed Oil (0.15%), Dried Seaweed, Herbs (Parsley, Rosemary, Nettle, Camomile) (0.12%), Glucosamine (100mg/kg), Chondroitin (100mg/kg), Yucca Extract (0.005%). *natural ingredient

Lamb or white fish at 60% opens each list, with brown rice at 6% behind it and carrots and peas at 4% each. Wholegrain rice brings fibre and B vitamins with its starch, and at this share it is a supporting ingredient. Where the two recipes part company is the carbohydrate estimate, 11.4% of dry matter on the lamb against 30.0% on the fish. That is what happens when the animal ingredient brings much less fat with it.

Salmon oil at 0.15% sits on both labels, and it is a useful inclusion for an older dog, since marine omega-3 is the kind that comes ready to use rather than needing converting. It does mean fish is on the ingredients list of the lamb recipe as well as the obvious one, so a dog avoiding fish has no route into this range.

White fish names a category, not a species. For most older dogs that makes no odds, and the recipe is honest about everything else. A household excluding one fish precisely will not get the answer it needs from this label.

Glucosamine at 100 mg/kg and chondroitin at 100 mg/kg are the senior additions, printed with figures. That is a maintenance level for a dog whose joints are simply getting older, and a dog already under treatment for arthritis should keep to whatever the vet has set, with this underneath as dinner.

The remainder is short and useful. Chicory root extract at 0.45% works as a prebiotic, dried seaweed carries iodine and trace minerals, and linseed oil at 0.15% supplies plant omega-3. The herb blend at 0.12% is named as parsley, rosemary, nettle and camomile, with yucca extract at 0.005% at the end. On top of that comes a dosed panel. Vitamin A at 2,500 IU, vitamin D3 at 200 IU and vitamin E at 30 mg lead it. Then zinc at 50 mg, iron at 10 mg, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg per kilo, the minerals in chelated form.

Ash reaches 18.2% of dry matter on the lamb, 16.0% on the fish. For a wet food that is high, and it usually means bone coming through with the animal ingredient on top of the added minerals. That is unremarkable for a healthy older dog, though any dog being managed for kidney or urinary trouble should have their food chosen by the vet.

Lamb at 60% with brown rice at 6%, the wetter of the two at 78.0% moisture and the richer at 29.5% of dry matter fat. Carbohydrate is low for a wet meal at an estimated 11.4% of dry matter, and energy comes to an estimated 94 kcal per 100g.

£4.43 a kilo on both recipes, sold in boxes of 18 and 36 trays.

As a guide, feed a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition on a maintenance estimate of around 840 kcal a day, or 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That is roughly 896 grams a day on the lamb, costing about £3.97, and 942 grams on the white fish at £4.17. Light trays like these ask for more weight in the bowl than a denser wet food would.