James Wellbeloved Senior Wet Food: Turkey In Gravy Grain Free review

The four pouches finish close to one another, spanning our Average band and our Good band. The decision here is about the animal and the starch, since quality barely moves between them. The wet category scores strongly on our system, its typical member reaching our Excellent band, and against that these read as soundly built senior pouches rather than outliers in either direction. The grain free turkey carries the highest protein of the four, though it is the plain turkey and rice pouch that finishes at the head of the group.

Ingredients, as declared: turkey* 71% in the chunk (necks, heart, deboned ground turkey, liver), pea protein, pea starch, dried carrots (1%, equivalent to carrots 7.3%), dried potatoes (1%, equivalent to potatoes 4.0%), dried peas (1%, equivalent to peas 3.5%), oils and fats (including linseed oil 0.26%), dried beet pulp, dextrose, minerals, seaweed (0.12%), cellulose, tomato powder, glucosamine by fermentation (0.02%). *100% natural. Chunk typically 42% of the product.

Read the percentages carefully. They refer to the chunk, not to the pouch. A figure such as turkey at 72% describes what the chunk is made of. That chunk comes to 37.5% or 42% of the pouch, and gravy fills out the rest.

Inside that chunk the parts are named one by one: necks, hearts, livers and deboned ground meat, plus lamb trachea on the chicken recipe. Liver earns its place: very little a dog eats packs more nutrition per mouthful. Naming trachea and lung is more candid than most labels bother to be.

The base divides the range. Three recipes take white and brown rice together at 5.5%, while the grain free turkey uses pea protein and pea starch, with dried carrots, peas and potatoes declared alongside their fresh equivalents.

The senior extras are modest but real. Glucosamine by fermentation appears at 0.02%, a nod towards joint support and well short of a therapeutic dose. DL-methionine is dosed at between 247 mg and 366 mg per kilo depending on the recipe. Vitamin E runs at 25.0 mg to 30.0 mg per kilo, higher than the adult pouches carry.

The rest of the list is the usual gravy furniture: dextrose, dried beet pulp, cellulose, seaweed at around 0.11% and tomato powder. Cellulose is a plain fibre bulker with next to no nutrition in it, while seaweed brings iodine and a spread of trace minerals.

Every entry on the short added panel carries a dose: vitamin D3 at 150 IU per kilo, and copper, iodine, iron, manganese and zinc each printed with a figure. When named animal parts lead a recipe, plenty of the micronutrition is already in the food.

Turkey at 71% of a 42% chunk, with pea protein and pea starch carrying the base instead of rice. It is the highest in protein of the four at 31.6% of dry matter and the most energy dense at an estimated 79 kcal per 100g.

The pouches run at £8.33 a kilo, with the grain free turkey at £9.03, sold in boxes of 12 and 48.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition that works out at roughly £9.33 a day, or £9.59 on the grain free turkey. The sum uses about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). In grams that is 1062 to 1120 a day, close to the label's own guide of 900 to 945 grams for the same dog.