Ruff's Recipes Dry Food: Cosy Chicken Casserole review

All four recipes land in our Good band, level with the middle of the adult dry shelf. They share the band, so let flavour decide between them. Fresh meat that cooks down, a helping hand from potato protein and a starch share a little above the norm are what hold them there. The itemised label, the chelated trace minerals and the joint blend printed in full are what stop them slipping any further. For a dog with no particular dietary problem to solve these are pleasant, straightforward foods to feed.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken & Turkey (37%) (including Freshly Prepared Chicken 30%, Turkey Gravy 4%, Chicken Liver 3%), Dried Sweet Potato, Dried Whole Peas (10%), Potato Protein, Poultry Oil, Alfalfa (3%), Minerals, Dried Carrot (0.5% equivalent to 4% Carrot), Dried Parsnip, Flaxseed (0.5%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.3%), 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 Apple, Joint Support Blend (0.1%) (including Glucosamine 0.034%, MSM 0.034%, Chondroitin 0.024%), Dried Blueberry.

Each recipe opens with a freshly prepared named meat at 30% and tops it up with a gravy and an organ meat to reach the headline. That comes to 37% chicken and turkey in the Cosy Chicken Casserole and 36% duck, venison and pork in the Hearty Game Stew. The Rustic Lamb Hotpot reads 37% lamb and chicken, and the Homely Fish Pie 40% salmon and prawn. Fresh is the operative word. Water makes up the bulk of that weight and the oven drives it off, with no dried meat meal following it in. Protein lands between 23.9% and 26.1% of dry matter as a result, which is moderate rather than meaty.

The binding is done by dried sweet potato and by dried whole peas, the peas printed at 10% in the chicken and lamb recipes. None of the four carries a grain. Potato protein sits just behind them. It is a plant source of protein, lifting the analysis without bringing the amino acid profile an animal would.

The joint support blend is declared at 0.1% and then broken open, with glucosamine and MSM at 0.034% each and chondroitin at 0.024%. The trace minerals are chelated with protein hydrolysates, which is the form usually chosen for easier uptake, and each one carries a figure. Zinc is at 100mg and iron at 50mg, down to selenium at 0.15mg, which comes as selenised yeast and not the mineral salt. Taurine is added at 1000mg with methionine at 2000mg alongside it.

A genuinely long tail sits below the minerals. Alfalfa, dried carrot and parsnip, flaxseed and chicory root extract at 0.3% as a prebiotic fibre come first. Then a herb and botanical blend at 0.2%, broken down as far as reishi mushroom and valerian root at 0.005%. Nothing at that level changes how a dog feels, and bay leaf does not make a recipe better. What it does show is a maker willing to print exactly how much of everything is in the bag, and that habit is worth noticing.

The Homely Fish Pie is the odd one out and the more interesting for it. Rapeseed oil takes the place of poultry oil and dried broccoli stands in for the carrot and parsnip. The animal content stops at salmon and prawn, so this is the one recipe here with no bird anywhere on the list.

Chicken and turkey at 37%, built from freshly prepared chicken at 30%, turkey gravy at 4% and chicken liver at 3%. Dried whole peas are printed at 10% here. Dried carrot at 0.5% is declared alongside its fresh equivalent of 4%. A dog that has never met the less common meats will find this the gentlest way in.

The 12kg bag works out at £5.00 a kilo and the 2kg at £7.00 a kilo, and both sizes are listed in all four flavours.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 234 and 247 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to between £1.17 and £1.24 a day. The feeding guides on the bags ask 200 to 355 grams for a dog of 12kg to 25kg depending on the recipe. Where the two disagree, your dog's waistline is the judge.