Naturo Senior Grain & Gluten Free Cans review

This can earns our Good band, and it earns it from the steadier end of the wet shelf rather than the top of it. The midpoint of the adult wet category falls a band above, in Excellent, and for an unfussy can aimed at older dogs this is still a respectable place to be. Nutritional balance reads Excellent and transparency Outstanding, with protein and processing Average and value Good. The meat is named and split, turkey at 26% and chicken at 24%, which is transparency working in the recipe's favour. An estimated 18.2% carbohydrate on a dry matter basis against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food, plus the modest as fed protein, is what keeps protein and processing where it is.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 26%, Chicken 24%, Fruit and Vegetables 8% (from 1% Dried Mixed Peppers, Peas and Sweet Potato), Minerals, Sunflower Oil 0.13%, Flaxseed Oil 0.06%, Salmon Oil 0.06%, Dried Kelp 0.06%, Dried Chicory Root 0.04%, Yeast 0.04%, Dried Basil 0.016%, Dried Nettle 0.01%, Yucca Powder 0.01%, Glucosamine 0.01%, Dried Rosehip 0.006%, Chondroitin Sulphate 0.0045%, Dried Marigold 0.002%, Pomegranate Extract 0.002%

Half the can is named poultry, turkey at 26% and chicken at 24%, with no category term standing in for either. Once the water is stripped out, protein converts to 34.1% of dry matter and fat to 31.8%, so the eating is richer than the as fed figures make it look.

There is very little plant matter here. The fruit and vegetable entry is 8%, and it comes from 1% dried mixed peppers with peas and sweet potato. Nothing cereal appears, which is where the grain and gluten free claim comes from, and it holds up against the full list rather than just the headline.

Glucosamine at 0.01% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.0045% are the joint entries. At these levels that is daily upkeep and not a treatment. A dog already diagnosed with a joint problem should stay on whatever the vet has dosed, with this can as the dinner underneath it. L-Carnitine at 25mg joins them from the additive panel, an amino acid often added where an older dog's weight needs watching.

The list then turns herbal, with dried nettle, rosehip, marigold and pomegranate extract all at trace levels. Chicory root at 0.04% brings inulin, a soluble fibre feeding the gut's own useful bacteria. Kelp at 0.06% carries the iodine. Yeast and yucca powder round it off. None of this is why you would buy the can, but all of it is declared.

Three oils appear in small print, sunflower at 0.13%, flaxseed at 0.06% and salmon at 0.06%, the last two the omega 3 sources. The vitamin and mineral panel is dosed throughout, covering vitamins A, D3 and E alongside zinc, iron, copper and manganese.

£3.59 a kilo, sold in 390g cans.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in steady condition comes to about £2.93 a day, which is roughly 816 grams. We take that dog's energy need as near 840 kcal daily, the figure the usual 110 × bodyweight^0.75 maintenance formula produces.