Pets at Home Complete Nutrition Meaty Selection in Gravy review

Our scoring lands this tin in the Average band, with the typical adult wet food a good way above it in Excellent. Nutritional balance reads Good, a fair reflection of a moderate, gentle analysis, and transparency reads Outstanding, while protein and processing reads Average and that is what holds the total down. Apart from the 4% of named meat, every entry is a legal category term, and the estimated cereal share is high for a wet recipe.

So this is a food you take on trust, not one you read. A great many dogs do perfectly well on exactly that. If yours is settled and thriving, this is not a reason to change anything.

Ingredients, as declared: With Chicken in Gravy: Meat and Animal Derivatives (35%, including 4% Chicken), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars. With Turkey in Gravy: Meat and Animal Derivatives (35%, including 4% Turkey), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars. With Beef in Gravy: Meat and Animal Derivatives (35%, including 4% Beef), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars.

Four entries and one named ingredient is the whole of it. Meat and animal derivatives is declared at 35%, with 4% of that tied to chicken, turkey or beef depending on which tin you pick up. Declaring the block total at all is more than some labels manage. What it cannot tell you is which animals make up the balance, or whether they are the same ones next month.

Second on the list, unnamed, is cereals. Carbohydrate is estimated at 37.9% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. More than anything else, that is what shapes the analysis: protein converts to 32.4% of dry matter and fat to 16.2%, both moderate figures for a wet food. A gentle bowl, in other words, rather than a rich one, and gentle is exactly what some dogs need.

Various sugars goes in for palatability and is not tied to a source, so it could be beet, cane or a syrup. It is a common enough entry in tins built to be eaten with enthusiasm, and knowing it is on the list is the useful part.

Every entry on the short added panel comes with a figure: vitamin D3 at 150 IU, vitamin E at 15 mg, then iron, iodine, manganese, zinc and copper dosed per kilo. Calcium converts to 1.08% of dry matter, a comfortable level for adult maintenance. No thickener is declared on this one, which fits a gravy rather than a jelly.

£1.41 a kilo, sold as 400g tins in a case of 6.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, reckon on roughly 1120 grams a day, or about £1.58, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own guide puts a 12kg to 25kg dog on 800 to 1400 grams a day, which brackets that estimate neatly.