James Wellbeloved Adult Wet Loaf Cans: Turkey & Rice review

Three of these cans reach our Excellent band, the chicken can and the two multipacks. The turkey can drops a band into Good: its protein and processing reads Poor where the other three read Excellent. The typical adult wet food sits in the Excellent band as well, wet being a category that scores strongly for us, so this range is broadly where a meat-first can ought to be. The grain free multipack declares the most animal content and carries the lowest estimated carbohydrate here at 19.0% of dry matter, with nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding on it and protein and processing Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: turkey* 71% in the chunk (necks, heart, deboned ground turkey, liver), pea starch, dried carrots (1%, equivalent to carrots 7.3%), dried potatoes (1%, equivalent to potatoes 4%), dried peas (1%, equivalent to peas 3.5%), oils and fats (including linseed oil 0.26%), dried beet pulp, dextrose, minerals, pea protein, seaweed (0.12%), cellulose, tomato powder. *100% natural. Chunk typically 42% of the product.

The single-flavour cans open with one named animal at 50%. That is a straightforward and verifiable claim, not a marketing figure, and it is half the tin before anything else is counted.

The plant side is small and printed: rice at 4%, carrots at 3.5%, peas and dried beet pulp at 0.5% each, with potato starch holding the loaf together. The grain free multipack swaps the rice for dried potatoes, declared at 1.5% with the fresh equivalent of 6% beside it, or 3% and 12% on its chicken and lamb can.

Oils and fats is the vague line, softened a little by the linseed oil inside it being declared at 0.2%. Alfalfa at 0.1% and seaweed close every list, seaweed being a natural source of iodine and a handful of other minerals.

The analysis is even across the range: protein at 37.5% of dry matter and fat at 27.5% on three of the cans, with the grain free multipack a step ahead at 39.5% and 28.9%. Those are honest wet-food figures and they sit comfortably for adult maintenance.

The added panel is short and dosed throughout: vitamin D3 at 220 IU, vitamin E at 13.8 mg, copper at 2 mg, manganese at 1.5 mg and zinc at 20 mg per kilo. The figures hold steady from can to can.

Turkey at 50% on the same rice and carrot base as the chicken can. If chicken has begun to pall, or your dog reacts to it, turkey is the pick of the two. The ingredients printed on this record describe a chunk in gravy recipe and not a loaf, so the can itself is the better guide.

Between £5.73 and £11.23 a kilo depending on the recipe, sold as single cans and in packs of 12.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at between £5.38 and £10.54 a day, or roughly 939 to 981 grams. Both figures come off about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own guide for a 15kg dog runs from 900 to 1050 grams a day depending on the can.