Heights Farm Fussy Dog (Sensory Bowl): Venison with Superfoods review

All four bundles land in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food. The tray is doing that work: meat between 45% and 60% with the species named on every one, a short list underneath it and nothing vague anywhere. The kibble is the more ordinary half of the pairing, so read the placing as a verdict on the two together rather than on the bag alone. Nothing separates the four on our pillars, with transparency reading Outstanding on each and protein and processing Good.

Ingredients, as declared: Fussy Dog kibble:Rice, Oats, Beef (12%) & Chicken (12%)Meal, unmolassed Beet Pulp, peas, Chicken liver, Alfalfa, Chicken Fat, Yeast, Salmon Oil, Mannan Oligosaccharides, Glucosamine (1,000mg/kg) Green Lipped Mussel (500mg/kg) Seaweed, Milk Thistle, Marigold, Yucca Schidigera, Kale, Beetroot, Rosemary, Venison with Superfoods Super Premium Wet Tray:55% Venison, 30.7% Broth, 3% Papaya, 3% Broccoli, 3% Amaranth, 2% Black Currant, 1% Dandelion, Minerals, 0.2% Linseed Oil, 0.1% Ginger.

The kibble is the same in all four bundles: rice and oats first, then beef meal and chicken meal at 12% each, with chicken liver, unmolassed beet pulp, peas and alfalfa behind them. It is the lighter recipe in the Heights Farm range, fat at 7% and fibre at 5%, with energy at 342 kcal per 100g. Glucosamine is dosed in print and green lipped mussel at 500 mg per kilo, so the joints are looked after even though the tray is what sells the bundle. Calcium converts to 2.22% of dry matter. For a dry food that is a plentiful figure, and it suits the adult label.

The trays are where the interest lies. Each one leads with a named species and a printed percentage, from 45% chicken with 15% rabbit alongside it, through 55% venison, to 60% chicken or 60% wild boar. Broth follows at close to 30% in every tray. Broth is mostly water, which is why a wet tray feels generous for its weight, though it also carries the smell that gets a reluctant dog to the bowl in the first place.

Behind the meat, each tray takes a different route through the fruit and vegetable shelf. One has sweet potato, chicory, banana and broccoli; another pumpkin, oat flakes, spinach and goji berries. The venison brings papaya, broccoli, amaranth, blackcurrant and dandelion, and the wild boar sweet potato, kale and chicory. These sit between 1% and 5%, so their nutritional contribution is modest. On a food sold for fussy dogs the point is partly the variety of smell and texture, and on that count they earn their place.

The smallest entries are the ones that give each tray its character: green tea in the rabbit, ginger in the venison, curcuma and spirulina in the wild boar, herbs and apple in the chicken. All sit at 0.1% or thereabouts, so nobody should expect much from them nutritionally. What they do is make four trays that smell genuinely different from one another, which is the whole strategy of a range aimed at a bored palate.

The trays carry their own trace elements, dosed per tray: zinc at 25 mg, copper at 1.5 mg, manganese at 1.4 mg, iodine at 0.75 mg and vitamin D3 at 200 iu. The kibble underneath brings the fuller panel with zinc sulphate at 400 mg, iron at 80 mg, manganese at 75 mg and copper at 35 mg per kilo. One small gap: the venison tray's label leaves the iodine figure off, though the entry itself is listed.

Venison at 55% with 30.7% broth heads this tray, followed by 3% papaya, 3% broccoli, 3% amaranth, 2% blackcurrant and 1% dandelion, with linseed oil and ginger at the bottom. Amaranth counts as a pseudocereal, not a true grain. For a dog whose history is all poultry, venison is something completely unfamiliar to think about.

£8.46 a kilo, taken as an estimate across the bundle rather than a figure read from one pack. The bundles come as a 1kg bag with a single 300g tray, or a 5kg bag with five 300g trays.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 246 grams of the kibble a day. That is around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), and it works out at roughly £2.08 a day with the trays included. The kibble label asks 140 to 280 grams for dogs between 10kg and 25kg, and you would drop that a little on the days the tray goes in.