More Calming Wet Food review

This recipe reaches our Excellent band, and it does so on the front of its list. Chicken and turkey together account for almost two thirds of the tub before the broth is counted. Protein converts to 47.7% of dry matter and fat to 22.7%, which reads as lean and meat heavy. Protein and processing comes out Excellent on that basis, with nutritional balance and transparency both reading Outstanding. The typical adult wet food also reaches our Excellent band, so this stands at the better end of a strong category rather than apart from it.

Worth saying plainly: the calming positioning is not what earns the placing. The score comes from the meat, the analysis and the short, named plant list. The valerian and the rest are a thoughtful extra sitting on top of a genuinely good dinner.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 33%, Turkey 30%, Broth 28%, Potato 5%, Parsnip 2%, Minerals 1%, Hemp Oil 0.5%, Yucca 0.1%, Lemongrass 0.1%, Valerian 0.1%, Hemp Seed 0.1%, Green Lipped Mussel 0.1%)

Two named birds carry the recipe. Chicken at 33% and turkey at 30% are both quantified, with a broth at 28% behind them. Turkey is the leaner of the two, a little lower in fat than chicken. That is part of why this converts to 47.7% protein and 22.7% fat in dry matter, an unusually protein forward reading for something fed wet.

The broth is the one entry keeping something back. At 28% the broth is a substantial part of what goes in the bowl, and no animal is named against it. A household running a strict avoidance list should treat it as an open question, not assume it follows the chicken and turkey above.

Potato at 5% and parsnip at 2% are the only starch on the list and no grain appears at all. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 15.9% of dry matter, exactly where adult wet food typically sits. The meat at the top does not translate into an unusually low starch figure once the water is taken out. Energy is 98 kcal per 100g against a typical 97, so daily amounts will feel familiar.

Then comes the calming tail, and it is honest about its size. Hemp oil at 0.5% is the largest of them, with yucca, lemongrass, valerian, hemp seed and green lipped mussel each at 0.1%. Valerian and lemongrass are long standing calming botanicals and green lipped mussel is a familiar joint ingredient, and at these inclusions they are a considered touch rather than a dose. Where a vet has prescribed for a diagnosed anxiety or joint problem, keep to that prescription and feed this underneath it.

The added panel is short and printed with figures: vitamin D3 at 200 I.E., zinc at 25 mg, copper at 1.5 mg, manganese at 1.4 mg and iodine at 0.75 mg per kilo. A recipe carrying this much meat takes a good deal of its micronutrition from the ingredients themselves, which is why a short panel here is no cause for concern.

£8.47 a kilo, in a 400g size.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition that works out at about £7.30 a day, or roughly 862 grams. That assumes a maintenance need of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard estimate). The label's own guide for a dog of 10 to 20kg is 400 to 800 grams a day.