Ruff's Recipes Ancient Grains Trays review

This tray reaches our Excellent band. The typical adult wet food is placed there too, so what stands out is holding that line on one named animal and one named grain rather than on a long list. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding, helped by protein at 52.8% of dry matter and almost no starch behind it, with transparency Outstanding alongside it and protein and processing reading Good. Mineral content is what keeps it from climbing further: crude ash reads 13.9% of dry matter. That is a sizeable share of the dry weight given over to something other than protein and fat.

Ingredients, as declared: Pork (60%), Potato (4%), Broccoli (4%), Dried Spelt (1%, equivalent to 2% Spelt), Minerals, Linseed, Dried Herbs & Botanicals (0.2%) (Seaweed, Nettle, Rosemary, Bay, Dill, Mint, Oregano, Thyme, Chamomile, Turmeric, Reishi Mushroom, Valerian Root), Chicory (a source of Inulin), Dried Blueberry.

Pork at 60% opens the list and never shares the billing. Pork appears far less often in dog food than chicken or beef, and that is exactly why it is useful. A dog has no way of reacting to a meat it has never met, so pork recipes earn their keep with allergy-prone dogs. It is also highly palatable and easy to digest, and at 60% of the tray it is doing the bulk of the work, turning into 52.8% protein on a dry matter basis.

Spelt is the ancient grain of the name, an old variety of wheat that has been farmed since the bronze age. Against modern wheat it brings a broader spread of B vitamins along with magnesium and fibre. Many dogs who do poorly on wheat handle it comfortably. It is still a wheat and it still contains gluten, so a gluten-free household should read that entry carefully. It is declared at 1% dried, which the label helpfully translates to 2% before drying.

Potato and broccoli at 4% each are the vegetables. Between the three plant entries the starch stays remarkably low, with estimated carbohydrate at 5.5% of dry matter where the usual adult wet food runs at 15.8%. Linseed follows for its omega-3. Chicory brings inulin, which the friendly bacteria in the gut feed on, and dried blueberry rounds the list off.

The herb and botanical blend at 0.2% is the one Ruff's puts in every range. Seaweed and nettle are in it, so are turmeric and reishi mushroom and valerian root, and none of them rises above trace level. The added panel is short: zinc at 15.3 mg per kilo, manganese at 3.2 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg. The first two are in chelated form, the more readily absorbed way to supply a trace element. Crude ash at 13.9% of dry matter tells you the mineral content is a real component here rather than a rounding error.

£9.27 a kilo, in 150g trays.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 1037 grams a day, which comes to around £9.61, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own guide puts a 12kg to 25kg dog on 825 to 1500 grams a day, which sits comfortably around that estimate.