Hero by Asda Sensitive Cans in Jelly: Rich in Turkey review

These tins belong to our Good band, and they read noticeably better than the brand's standard cans. Transparency comes out Outstanding, with nutritional balance Excellent. Good is the reading for protein and processing and for value. The 14% of named meat, the identified rice and the fish oil are doing that work. The typical adult wet food is a step ahead, up in our Excellent band. What keeps these behind it is the make-up of the tin: more than half the animal block is unnamed and most of the cereal fraction is anonymous. For a dog whose stomach is fussy rather than allergic, none of that need be a problem.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Animal Derivatives (33% including 14% Turkey), Cereals (including Rice Flour 1.6%, equivalent to Cooked Rice 4%), Minerals, Oils and Fats (0.4% Fish Oil), Various Sugars, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.1% Chicory)

The important figure is 14%. Every other tin and pouch in this brand names its animal at 4%. Here the beef, chicken or turkey is declared at 14% of a 33% animal block. Nothing else in the recipe comes close to it. That is a genuine difference, not a marketing one.

The rest of that block is meat and animal derivatives, the legal catch-all for fleshy parts and processing products from warm-blooded land animals. So more than half of the animal content is still unidentified, and a dog being taken off one particular species cannot be taken off it reliably here.

The cereal entry is part-named, with rice flour at 1.6% picked out, equivalent to 4% cooked rice. Rice is the traditional carbohydrate for an upset stomach because it is bland and readily digested, and naming it is a step up from the plain cereals the rest of the range prints. The remainder of the cereal fraction still goes unnamed.

Fish oil at 0.4% is the largest oil inclusion in the brand and it is doing something useful. Fish oil is where the long-chain omega-3s come from, and those are what a dog with an irritable gut or an itchy coat tends to benefit from. Chicory at 0.1% adds a trace of inulin. It is prebiotic in principle, and small in practice.

On the analysis, protein converts to 36.8% of dry matter and fat to 21.1%, both a step up from the brand's standard tins. Estimated carbohydrate comes to 29.0% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. Energy is 82 kcal per 100g. Cassia gum at 2.8 g sets the jelly. The added panel is dosed throughout: vitamin D₃ at 187 IU and vitamin E at 19 mg. Iron, zinc, manganese, iodine and copper each carry a printed figure. There is no calcium figure.

Turkey at 14%, lean and easy on the stomach, and the least commonly fed of the three. That relative rarity can be an advantage for a dog that has already had a great deal of chicken and beef in its life.

£1.45 a kilo, sold as 400g tins in packs of 6.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition the maintenance estimate is about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That puts feeding at roughly 1024 grams, or just past two and a half tins, and about £1.49 a day. The label's own guide is heavier at that weight, giving 1000g to 1600g for a dog between 10kg and 20kg.