Lukullus Vitality Wet: Light Turkey (Grain-Free) review

A light food landing in our Excellent band is not the usual outcome. The method explains it: the calories have come out through water and fibre, with no meat swapped for cereal. Protein still converts to 52.6% of dry matter, which is higher than plenty of ordinary wet dinners manage. The wider adult wet shelf has its midpoint in the Excellent band as well, so this tin keeps company with everyday recipes instead of trailing behind them the way a diet food often does. Protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Outstanding here, with value a step below them in Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: Complete food for adult dogs of all breeds. Turkey (50%, consisting of turkey stomachs, turkey hearts, turkey meat, turkey liver, turkey neck), broth (33%), carrots (5%), apple (5%), broccoli (3.3%), cellulose (2%), minerals (1%), psyllium husks (0.5%), dandelion (0.1%), rapeseed oil (0.1%).

Turkey at 50% opens the list, broken down into stomachs, hearts, meat, liver and neck. The parts of the bird in the tin are there to read. Broth at 33% follows, and it carries its own printed percentage. Which animal it was made from is not said. Protein converts to 52.6% of dry matter, which for a food this light is the whole trick.

Carrot and apple at 5% each with broccoli at 3.3% are the recognisable plants, and dandelion at 0.1% is a traditional finishing touch. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 14.2% of dry matter, a little under the 15.8% typical of adult wet food, so the starch has not crept in to replace the fat.

Cellulose at 2% and psyllium husks at 0.5% are the fibre engine, and they are worth understanding. Cellulose is a purified plant fibre that passes through largely undigested, which is exactly why a light diet uses it: it fills a bowl and leaves almost no calories behind. Psyllium adds the soluble side, which helps stools stay firm when a dog is eating a lot of bulk. Crude fibre lands at 9.5% of dry matter, several times what an ordinary wet tin carries, and that is the design rather than an accident.

Fat is where the calories have gone. It converts to 11.1% of dry matter, with only 0.1% rapeseed oil added on top of what the turkey brings. The tin comes out at 64 kcal per 100g against 97 for the typical adult wet food. That gap is the point of the product, and it is why the bowl looks so full.

The added panel is short and printed with doses. Vitamin D3 sits at 200 IU, zinc at 25 mg and manganese at 1.4 mg, with iodine at 0.75 mg, copper at 1 mg and L-carnitine at 200 mg per kilo. L-carnitine is the one that belongs to the diet story, since it has a hand in moving fat into the muscle that burns it. At 200 mg per kilo it is a real inclusion.

£3.54 a kilo. Tins come in 400g and 800g, six to a pack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats roughly 1312 grams a day, at around £4.65. Behind that is about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A light food carries fewer calories in every gram, so the daily amount runs high next to a standard tin. A dog being fed down from an overweight starting point will be on less than that figure.