Omni Pumpkin & Lentil Hot Pot review

The reason this can rests in our Good band rather than up with the typical adult wet food in our Excellent band is structural. Our scoring counts named animal ingredients heavily and this recipe has none, because it is not meant to have any. Judged on its own terms it is thoughtfully assembled, with pumpkin and lentils rather than plain starch doing most of the work, and it reads highest of the three Omni wet cans. Transparency lands at Outstanding, with protein and processing at Poor and nutritional balance and value both at Good.

Ingredients, as declared: Pumpkin (15%), Red Lentils (8%), Pea Protein (7%), Dried Parsnip (1% equivalent to 4% Parsnip), Minerals, Tomato Powder, Potato Protein (1.5%), Rapeseed Oil (1.5%), Chia Seeds (1%), Coconut Oil (1%), Dried Brewer's Yeast (1%), Dried Seaweed (Ascophyllum Nodosum) (0.1%), Dried Spinach (0.1%), Dried Chicory (a natural source of FOS and Inulin) (0.03%), Yucca, Dried Marigold, Dried Sage

Pumpkin at 15% is an unusual thing to find at the head of a dog food list and a sensible one. It is gentle on the gut and it carries fibre with it. Red lentils at 8% come next and add protein and more fibre, and they release their energy more slowly than a plain starch would.

Pea protein at 7% and potato protein at 1.5% carry the recipe up to 32.7% protein on a dry matter basis. Both are refined byproducts of food processing, not whole ingredients. They lift a protein figure efficiently. A dog still gets less out of plant protein than out of the same declared amount from an animal.

The oils are rapeseed at 1.5% and coconut at 1%, with chia seeds at 1% for plant omega 3. It is a modest fat load, and part of why the analysis reads as light as it does at 13.5% of dry matter.

Read down to the bottom of the list. That is where the thinking shows. Seaweed at 0.1% brings iodine and trace minerals, dried chicory at 0.03% works as a prebiotic, and yucca, marigold and sage sit below that in trace amounts. There is brewer's yeast at 1% as well. It carries B vitamins and a full set of amino acids.

The added panel is printed with doses throughout, and the two entries to look for are taurine and L-carnitine. A dog can usually make its own taurine, but a diet without meat gives it much less to work from. A plant based recipe that adds both is doing the right thing by the dog.

£1.60 a kilo, in a 395 g can sold in packs of 6 and 12.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need about 923 grams a day, which works out at roughly £1.48. Behind that sits a need of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is a little over two cans.