Tails.com Grain-Free Recipes in Gravy: Shepherd's Pie with Lamb, Potato & Peas review

Both trays land in our Average band, and both get there the same way. Protein and processing reads Average and transparency Good, which is what happens when the animal that gives a recipe its name accounts for 4% of it and the rest arrives as a category. Nutritional balance, though, comes back Outstanding. Set against a wet shelf whose middle sits in our Excellent band, that is a real gap, and it is a gap in disclosure rather than in wholesomeness. The casserole in particular carries a strong printed analysis, with protein converting to 55.6% of dry matter, and the pie is leaner at 50.0%. Neither is a food to be uneasy about feeding. Both are foods you buy without being told what is in them.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and animal derivatives (including 4% lamb*), Vegetables* (including 4% peas and 4% potatoes), Fish and fish derivatives*, Minerals, Yeast, Herbs* (including rosemary 0.1%). *Natural Ingredients

Both lists open on meat and animal derivatives, with a named animal in brackets at 4%. In law that term covers the fleshy parts and processing by-products of warm-blooded land animals, broad enough to take in excellent material and poor material alike. It is common right across the wet aisle, and what it means for you is not knowing whether the animal behind the gravy changed since the last delivery.

The vegetables are where these trays are most forthcoming. The casserole prints green beans at 6% and potatoes at 4%; the pie prints peas at 4% and potatoes at 4%. Potato is there for body and starch, peas add fibre and minerals with a little plant protein, and green beans are about as easy on a dog's stomach as a vegetable gets.

Fish and fish derivatives appears on both, with no species given. It is doing a small job at that point in the list, but a strict avoidance plan should count it, and it rules out describing either tray as a one-animal recipe.

The shepherd's pie adds a herbs entry with rosemary declared at 0.1%. Rosemary is normally in a recipe to stop the fats going rancid, so read it as a preservative and not a seasoning.

The analyses part company. The casserole runs protein at 55.6% of dry matter with fat at 27.8% and an estimated carbohydrate of 2.7%. The pie runs protein at 50.0% with fat at 19.4% and estimated carbohydrate at 16.7%, close to the 15.8% typical for adult wet food. Neither tray declares energy, so both figures shown are our estimates from the analysis.

Minerals are dosed identically on the two labels: vitamin D3 at 140.0iu/kg, zinc at 12.0mg/kg, manganese at 1.0mg/kg, copper at 0.5mg/kg and iodine at 0.3mg/kg. Yeast closes each list, there for palatability and for the prebiotic fractions in its cell walls.

Lamb named at 4%, with peas and potatoes at 4% each and a herbs entry carrying rosemary at 0.1%. The leaner tray of the pair at an estimated 72 kcal per 100g, and the only one offered in a 150 g size as well as 300 g.

The casserole comes in 300 g trays; the pie comes in 300 g and 150 g, and trays are sold in packs of 8.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, the casserole works out at roughly 1061 grams a day and the pie at roughly 1170 grams. Both come from an estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).