Skinner's Get Out & Go Wet Foods Adult: Everyday Energy review

The Extra Energy carton finishes in our Outstanding band, with the Everyday Energy a band behind it in Excellent. A typical adult wet food also lands in Excellent. That is a mark of how strong the wet category is, and it takes nothing away from what Skinner's has done here.

The front of the list is what earns the placement. Chicken at 74% and 80% respectively, with no unnamed meat, no cereal and no derivatives anywhere behind it, and protein converting to 32.1% and 33.3% of dry matter. Carbohydrate is estimated at 21.5% on Everyday Energy and 16.7% on Extra Energy, against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. The vegetables and fruit further down, with the root extracts, account for that.

The extras read as thought rather than decoration: linseed oil for its omega-3, yeast products for nucleotides and prebiotic MOS, chicory for FOS, and a joint pair for a dog that works.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 74%, Carrot 4%, Green beans 3.17%, Spinach 0.79%, Apple 0.16%, Blueberry 0.16%, Linseed oil, Yeast products (as a source of nucleotides prebiotic MOS and betalucans) 0.13%, Seaweed, Chicory root extract (as a source of prebiotic FOS) 0.034%, Chicory root powder, Alfalfa, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Extract of yucca, Schidigera 0.01%, Dried fennel 0.0075%, Dried ginger 0.005%, Turmeric powder 0.005%

Chicken carries these recipes, at 74% on Everyday Energy and 80% on Extra Energy, and it is the only animal named on either list. That is a high share for a wet food and it shows in the analysis, with fat at 8.0% and 10.0% as fed and the energy figure declared on the label.

The plant side is deliberately light. Everyday Energy prints carrot at 4%, green beans at 3.17%, spinach at 0.79%, and apple and blueberry at 0.16% each. Extra Energy carries the same cast with green beans and spinach at 1% and blueberry at 0.17%, and leaves several of the others unquantified. Neither recipe is leaning on plants for bulk.

Linseed oil is the fat that gets a name of its own. It brings plant-form omega-3 along with fibre and natural antioxidants. A marine oil would do more, and this is still a considered choice for the fat line. Alfalfa, seaweed, yucca, fennel, ginger and turmeric follow it at trace level, with turmeric printed at 0.005%.

The gut package is the most itemised part of the label. Yeast products at 0.13% supply nucleotides and prebiotic MOS, and chicory root extract at 0.034% supplies FOS, with chicory root powder alongside it. Prebiotics like these feed the useful bacteria already in a dog's gut, and seeing them printed to three decimal places says something about how the recipe was put together.

Glucosamine and chondroitin close both lists without a percentage between them, so read them as a helpful addition for a dog on its feet all day. Where a joint problem has actually been diagnosed, whatever your vet has put your dog on stays the treatment and this stays the dinner.

The added panel is identical on both cartons and fully dosed: vitamin A at 3000iu, vitamin D3 at 250iu, zinc at 25mg, iron at 12mg, manganese at 2mg and copper at 1.2mg per kilo.

Chicken at 74% and the steadier of the two at 120 kcal per 100g, for a dog in regular work. It is also the more fully printed label, giving percentages for carrot at 4%, green beans at 3.17%, spinach at 0.79% and the fruit. Its carbohydrate estimate of 21.5% of dry matter is the higher of the pair.

£3.59 a kilo on both recipes, in 390g cartons.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 700 grams a day of Everyday Energy or 618 grams of Extra Energy. That works out at £2.51 and £2.22 respectively, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).