Lovejoys Original Wet Senior / Light review

This recipe lands in our Good band, a step behind the middle of the adult wet market, which sits in Excellent. Transparency reads Outstanding while protein and processing reads Good. Nutritional balance comes back Average and value Good, in step with the overall. What earns the placing is a label that names its chicken, prints its meat share and puts figures beside both the joint extras and the whole additive panel. The plant load is what stops it climbing further. Carbohydrate is estimated at 38.0% of dry matter, well above the 15.8% usual here, and protein at 28.0% is the quietest figure on the panel. For a light recipe that is a deliberate trade rather than a slip, and it is worth understanding before you move a dog who is still busy on to it.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (55%), Brown Rice (6%), Carrots (3%), Peas (3%), Mixed Herbs (0.5%), Salmon Oil (0.35%), Seaweed (55.6mg/kg), Glucosamine (39mg/kg), Chondroitin (22mg/kg), Yucca Extract, Cranberry Extract, Yeast Extract - High Nucleotide & Minerals

The tin's one meat is chicken, leading at 55%. The label says chicken and nothing more, which usually points to the fresh form. Once the water is taken out it converts to 28.0% protein of dry matter, a deliberately moderate figure for older and lighter feeding.

The largest plant entry is brown rice at 6%, and carrots and peas at 3% each sit behind it. Brown rice keeps its bran and is easy on most digestions, and whole peas bring fibre along with a spread of vitamins and minerals. Between them they take the estimated carbohydrate to 38.0% of dry matter, which is the single biggest difference between this tin and a meat led adult recipe.

Salmon oil at 0.35% is small but real, and it is there for coat and skin. That puts fish in the tin, though chicken remains the one meat named. Seaweed at 55.6 mg/kg supplies iodine and a spread of trace minerals.

Glucosamine at 39 mg/kg and chondroitin at 22 mg/kg close the working part of the list. These are modest doses, sensible as everyday support in a senior recipe. A dog already prescribed something for their joints should carry on with it, and this tin can be the dinner beneath.

Yucca extract and cranberry extract sit at the bottom in small amounts, and a high nucleotide yeast extract sits with them. Every added vitamin and trace element carries a figure, a level of declaration plenty of wet labels skip entirely.

£4.53 a kilo, in 395g tins sold in packs of 10.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at around £3.62 a day, or roughly 800 grams, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).