Lukullus Adult Tins Menu Gustico: Beef With Pumpkin, Apple & Oregano review

Adult wet is a strong shelf, with its midpoint already in our Excellent band, and that is exactly where these three tins land. The duck tin holds its place alongside them, for all that a third of it is carrot and potato and its protein converts lowest of the three once the moisture comes out. Protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Outstanding across the three, with value reading Excellent beside them, and that is the profile of a tin built to a genuinely high specification.

Ingredients, as declared: Complete food for adult dogs of all breeds. Ingredients, 63% beef (heart, muscle meat, lung), 10% potatoes, 10% courgettes, 5% pumpkin, 5% apple, 2% oregano, 1.9% parsley, 1.9% seaweed meal, 1% linseed oil, 0.1% Andean salt, 0.1% minerals

Each tin opens with a single animal broken down by part. The beef is heart, muscle meat and lung at 63%; the turkey is heart, meat, liver and stomach at 64%; the duck is meat, heart and liver at 55%. No category term hides anything here. That is what lets these recipes suit a dog who has to keep off one particular animal. Protein converts to between 44.0% and 57.4% of dry matter, the turkey tin being the leanest and the most protein-dense of the three.

The vegetables are the point of difference. Courgette, pumpkin, apple and oregano on the beef; carrot, cowberries and rosemary on the duck; carrot, courgette, sweet potato, cucumber, fennel and dill on the turkey. These are whole foods, not refined starches. Even with 16.5% carrot and 16.5% potato in the duck tin the carbohydrate estimate stays between 8.5% and 13.7% of dry matter, under the 15.8% typical of adult wet food.

Seaweed meal at 1.9% runs through all three recipes as a broad mineral source, iodine included, and the added panel tops iodine up on its own account. Andean salt at 0.1% on two of the labels is there for flavour. Most recipes would rather not print a line like that, and a tenth of a percent declared openly is a small thing plainly stated.

Linseed oil carries the added fat, at 1% on the beef and turkey and 2% on the duck, which puts the omega-3 here on a plant footing rather than a marine one. Fat itself ranges from 18.6% of dry matter on the turkey to 34.0% on the duck, so the two tins bracket a light dinner and a rich one within the same range.

There is not much on the additive panel, and what is there carries a dose. On the beef and turkey: vitamin D3 at 200 IU, vitamin E at 20 IU, zinc at 1.8 mg, manganese at 0.7 mg, iodine at 0.15 mg and copper at 0.25 mg per kilo. The duck label runs its own version, adding vitamin B1 at 0.80 mg and biotin at 91.99 mcg. Per kilo of food as fed these are modest figures, and a tin that is four fifths moisture is why.

Beef at 63%, taken from heart, muscle meat and lung, on a bed of 10% potato and 10% courgette with pumpkin and apple at 5% each. Oregano at 2% and parsley at 1.9% give it the most seasoned list of the three. Protein converts to 50.0% of dry matter and the estimated energy is 86 kcal per 100g.

£5.31 a kilo on the beef and turkey recipes and £6.87 a kilo on the duck. There are 400g and 800g tins in packs of 6, and the beef and duck also come in 24 tin saver packs.

As a guide, a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition runs between £5.22 and £6.10 depending on the recipe. The energy basis is about 840 kcal a day, from the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That corresponds to roughly 888 to 1129 grams a day, the turkey tin needing the most of the three because it carries the fewest calories in every gram.