Ruff's Recipes Cartons: Country Chicken Pie review

Our Excellent band holds all four cartons, and it holds the typical adult wet food as well, wet being a strong category to be judged in. What marks this range out inside that band is construction: meat with a printed percentage at the head of every list, no cereal anywhere and no category terms at all. Delicious Duck Feast comes out fractionally ahead, with Country Chicken Pie next and the lamb and fish cartons a shade behind. The four sit close enough that your dog's palate is the better guide. Protein and processing reads Excellent on all four, transparency Outstanding, and value Excellent throughout. Nutritional balance reads Excellent on the chicken and the duck, with the fish and the lamb a step up in Outstanding.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Chicken (61.8%) Pumpkin (6.5%), Green Beans (2.6%), Flaxseed (0.6%), Chicory Root (as a source of prebiotic FOS) (0.13%), Dried Herbs & Botanicals (0.2%) (Seaweed 0.05%, Nettle 0.02%, Rosemary 0.015%, Bay 0.015%, Dill 0.015%, Mint 0.015%, Oregano 0.015%, Thyme 0.015%, Chamomile 0.01%, Turmeric 0.01%, Reishi Mushroom 0.005%, Valerian Root 0.005%) Dried Blueberry,Dried Herbs & Botanicals (0.2%) (Seaweed, Nettle, Rosemary, Bay, Dill, Mint, Oregano, Thyme (0.015%), Chamomile, Turmeric, Reishi Mushroom, Valerian Root), Dried Blueberry.

Freshly prepared meat opens three of the four lists, which tells you it arrived fresh and was not a dried meal. The fish carton names its salmon and white fish in the same style. The share is consistent at 61.8% in the chicken, duck and lamb cartons and 61.7% between the two fish. That is a lot of animal for a wet recipe, and it shows up as protein of 34.6% to 36.0% of dry matter.

The plant side is short and specific. Pumpkin, beetroot and carrot at 6.5% take the vegetable slot in three of the cartons and potato does it in the lamb, with green beans, blueberry, peas and spinach at around 2.6% behind them. Cereal appears on none of the four labels, and the starch stays modest. It runs from an estimated 11.6% of dry matter in the duck up to 17.3% in the lamb, against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food.

The same finishing set goes into every carton. Flaxseed at 0.6% brings omega-3, dried blueberry comes next, and chicory root at 0.13% is there for prebiotic FOS. Then there is a herb and botanical blend at 0.2%, holding seaweed at 0.05% and nettle, rosemary at 0.015%, turmeric, reishi mushroom and valerian root. All of these sit at trace level, a garnish on top of the meat and not a working dose.

The added panel is identical across the four, and every line carries a figure. Vitamin A is at 3,300 IU per kilo, vitamin D3 at 275 IU, zinc at 27.5 mg, iron at 13.2 mg, manganese at 2.2 mg and copper at 1.32 mg. Iodine and selenium are both absent, which is worth noticing on a complete diet. A recipe this meat-heavy does carry plenty of micronutrition in the ingredients themselves.

Freshly prepared chicken at 61.8%, and nothing else on the label came from an animal. This is the carton for a dog being kept to one meat. Pumpkin at 6.5% and green beans at 2.6% are the vegetables. It carries 112 kcal per 100g and estimated carbohydrate of 15.4% of dry matter, the second highest in the range, with calcium at 3.08%.

£7.15 a kilo across all four cartons, in a single 390g size.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat between 724 and 778 grams a day depending on the carton. That works out at between £5.18 and £5.56, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).