Hero by Asda Adult Dog Cans in Jelly: With Chicken review

Both tins are in our Average band and there is almost nothing between them, with the mixed box reading a shade better than the single chicken tin and the same four pillar readings on each. The typical adult wet food is a long way up from either, in our Excellent band, and the distance sits almost entirely in protein and processing, which reads Poor on both tins. A category term can hide a good recipe as easily as an ordinary one, and our reading can only work with what is printed. Plenty of dogs eat this tin happily; what the band describes is the label, not the dinner.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Animal Derivatives (33%, including 4% Chicken), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars

Both labels start in the same place, with meat and animal derivatives at 33% and the animal named on the tin making up 4% of the recipe. That term is drawn broadly in law, covering the fleshy parts and the processing products of warm-blooded land animals. It can hold decent muscle meat, and it can hold the parts that never appear on a front label. It is not a hygiene question. It is a question of not being told.

Cereals follows, and it is the second broad term on a very short list. Any grain can sit under it and the choice may shift with supply. That is fine for most dogs and awkward for the few whose diet is being pinned down precisely.

Cassia gum at 2.8 g is what turns the liquid into jelly. It is made from senna seed, it is approved for use in pet food, and in wet manufacturing it is generally paired with other gelling agents that do not have to appear on a label. That is the entry to note if you prefer to keep gelling agents out of the bowl; if the texture is what gets your dog eating, it is doing an honest job.

On the analysis, protein converts to 32.4% of dry matter and fat to 16.2%, an unremarkable and easy-going balance. The carbohydrate estimate is the outlier at 37.9% of dry matter, well above the 15.8% typical of adult wet food. That puts the cereals near the centre of the recipe.

Various sugars sits at the end of both lists, there to make the tin more tempting. The added panel above it is short but fully dosed: vitamin D₃ at 150 IU, vitamin E at 15 mg, and iron, zinc, manganese, iodine and copper each with a printed figure. No calcium figure is given on either label.

The single-flavour tin keeps to chicken, at 4% of a 33% animal block, and it is the slightly warmer of the two at 78 kcal per 100g against the selection's 75. Chicken is the easiest meat to sell to a doubtful eater. Dogs also see more chicken than any other meat, and that is why chicken intolerance crops up more than most.

The mixed selection is £1.35 a kilo and the single chicken tin £1.55 a kilo, both in 400g tins; the selection is boxed in 6 and 24, the chicken tin sold on its own.

Reckon on about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at roughly 1120 grams of the selection or 1077 grams of the chicken tin, the chicken running slightly warmer per gram. That is about £1.51 a day on the selection and about £1.67 on the chicken.