Natures Menu Country Hunter Cans: Wild Venison with Superfoods review

Every flavour lands in our Excellent band. No single can stands out from the rest, since so little separates them. The typical wet food for adult dogs also lands in our Excellent band, so this range is holding its own in a strong category rather than pulling clear of it. The differences between flavours are modest, and the construction barely changes, so let your dog's protein needs make the choice.

Ingredients, as declared: Venison 52% inc. 4% heart, 4% lung, 4% liver, 4% trimmings, Blueberry 3%, Peas 3%, Apples 2%, Swede 3%, Carrots 3%, Spinach 1%, Minerals, sunflower oil, dehydrated vegetal broth, green tea extract, yucca extract

Meat does the heavy lifting on every label, declared with a percentage and broken down into its working parts. Heart, liver, lung, stomach or neck turn up itemised at 4% apiece, depending on the flavour. Much of an animal's nutrition actually lives in the organs. The analysis agrees with the labels: protein converts to between 42.9% and 52.2% of dry matter across the seven.

The superfoods of the name are berries and fruits, with vegetables and seeds alongside, most declared at between 1% and 4% of the can. At those levels they season the can and no more, and the printed percentages are honest enough to say so. These recipes stand on their meat, which is the right place to stand.

No grain appears anywhere in the range. Nor is there potato or rice doing quiet filler work. Sweet potato appears once, in the beef, at 2%. Depending on the flavour, the carbohydrate estimate runs from 7.4% to 17.5% of dry matter. Meat and moisture carry everything else.

Each label closes with plant extracts at trace level. Green tea extract runs through every flavour, joined variously by rosemary and yucca. Green tea and rosemary extracts do the work of a natural antioxidant, keeping the fats fresh, while yucca is traditionally included with stool odour in mind.

Five of the seven flavours keep to a single named animal, and the two that pair species say so in their names. For anyone steering a dog around a particular protein, that makes this an unusually easy shelf to shop from.

Venison at 52% with heart, lung, liver and trimmings each at 4%, the fullest organ set in the range, and the flavour that edges to the top of our Excellent band.

Every flavour is £7.48 a kilo, sold in 600g cans.

Reckon on about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, the standard maintenance estimate being 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That works out at between £4.80 and £7.22 a day depending on the flavour. The spread follows energy density, so the denser cans go further. Let the waistline set the final portion rather than the tin's own table.