Tails.com Recipes in Gravy: Seaside Stew with Cod, Rice & Carrots review

All three trays finish in our Average band by an identical route. Protein and processing reads Average on each, held there because a recipe that names 4% of its animal content and describes the rest in categories offers little that can be verified. Transparency reads Good and nutritional balance Outstanding. The wet aisle scores well with us overall, its middle landing in our Excellent band, which is what makes the distance look large. There is nothing wrong with the analysis: protein converts to 50.0% of dry matter, and the estimated carbohydrate of 16.7% sits near the 15.8% typical for adult wet food. This is a verdict on a label, not a caution about a dinner.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and animal derivatives, Vegetables* (including 6% carrot), Fish and fish derivatives* (including 4% cod), Cereals* (2% dry rice, equivalent to 5% cooked rice), Minerals, Yeast. *Natural Ingredients

Meat and animal derivatives opens all three lists. In law it covers the fleshy parts and the processing products of slaughtered warm-blooded land animals. That is wide enough to take in prime material and very ordinary material alike, with no way to tell them apart. Two of the trays name an animal inside it, beef at 4%. The cod stew names none at all, putting its 4% cod in a separate fish entry instead.

The plant side is more open. The cottage pie prints carrot at 4% and potatoes at 4%. The ragu prints red pepper at 6% and pasta at 4% under a bakery products heading. The stew prints carrot at 6% and rice at 2% dry, or 5% once cooked by the label's own reckoning. Carrot and pepper bring antioxidants and fibre, while potato, pasta and rice are there to give the gravy body.

That makes the ragu and the stew the two grain-carrying trays, one through pasta and one through rice, while the cottage pie names no cereal at all. That distinction is worth holding on to if you are steering around grain.

Fish and fish derivatives appears on the cottage pie and the stew without a species, and the stew's 4% cod sits inside that entry. The ragu carries no fish anywhere on its label. With fish off the menu, that is the one to pick.

The analysis is common to all three: protein at 50.0% of dry matter, fat at 19.4% and an estimated 16.7% carbohydrate. Energy goes undeclared on all three labels, so the 72 kcal per 100g used here is our estimate from the analysis.

Yeast closes each list and the mineral additions carry printed doses, with 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 on every tray.

Cod at 4% inside a fish and fish derivatives entry, with carrot at 6% and rice declared at 2% dry, equal to 5% cooked. Its meat and animal derivatives entry names no land animal at all, so this is the least specific label of the three. For a dog that prefers fish, this is the obvious choice.

All three come in 300 g trays with a 150 g tray alongside, sold in packs of 8.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need roughly 1170 grams a day from any of the three, on an estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Call it four of the 300 g trays.