Terra Canis

Terra Canis Essential 8: Chicken and Beef review

Name: Terra Canis Terra Canis Essential 8: Chicken and Beef
Brand: Terra Canis

80.7/100Outstanding

WetAdult

Terra Canis Essential 8 is the plainest tin on this shelf, a working list of eight ingredients before the minerals and herbs arrive. Beef and chicken share 29% between them, all of it organ meat, with an equal 29% of broth and then carrot, courgette, millet and apple. It sits in our Outstanding band.

Where to buy: coming soon

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Our view

Likely to suit

A list this short lets you see the whole bowl without reading a paragraph to find out.

Dogs that take well to organ meat, with chicken stomach at 11%, beef heart at 7%, beef lung at 7% and beef liver at 4% all named
Owners who want the broth declared as broth, printed here at 29% rather than tucked away as water
Adult dogs of any build, since one tin covers everything from the smallest toy breed to a giant
Dogs that do better with a gentle gluten-free grain, since the list holds no cereal beyond millet at 10%
Households that like plenty of vegetable in the bowl, with carrot at 14% and courgette at 12%

Worth watching

Before this becomes the everyday tin, give the label a slower read on a few points.

Beef and chicken are both in the tin, so a dog avoiding either cannot run an elimination trial on it
The estimated carbohydrate reaches 40.1% of dry matter, well above the 15.8% typical for adult wet food, with the millet and the vegetables both playing a part
No animal is named against the broth, so keep that in view if you run a strict avoidance list
The printed panel runs to vitamin D3 and four trace minerals, leaving the rest of the vitamin work to the ingredients themselves

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

80.7/100Outstanding

Protein and processingGood

Nutritional balanceOutstanding

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueOutstanding

The Details

Dog fit

A list this short lets you see the whole bowl without reading a paragraph to find out. Before this becomes the everyday tin, give the label a slower read on a few points.

Food type

Wet

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Beef

The score, in context

We place this tin in our Outstanding band. Wet food scores well with us, its midpoint landing in our Excellent band, so a band above that says something about how plainly this one is built. Protein and processing reads Good while nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, and the label is unusually easy to check, which counts for something.

What's in it

Ingredients, as declared: beef and chicken 29% (chicken stomach 11%, beef heart 7%, beef lung 7%, beef liver 4%), broth 29%, carrot 14%, courgette 12%, millet 10%, apple 4%, rapeseed oil, coconut flour 1%*, minerals*, sage 0.2%*, chervil 0.2%*, thyme 0.2%*, *dried

Named ingredients

Beef and chicken 29% (chicken stomach 11%, beef heart 7%, beef lung 7%, beef liver 4%), broth 29%, carrot 14%, courgette 12%, millet 10%, apple 4%, rapeseed oil, coconut flour 1%*, minerals*, sage 0.2%*, chervil 0.2%*, thyme 0.2%*, *dried

Nutritional additives

Vit. D3 (3a671): 192 IU, iodine (3b201): 0,6 mg, copper (3b405): 1 mg; manganese (3b503): 9 mg, zinc (3b603): 13,5 mg

Ingredient notes

The 29% of meat is entirely organ and offal, split into chicken stomach at 11%, beef heart at 7%, beef lung at 7% and beef liver at 4%. These are the cuts a dog would go for first, and they are dense in the things a bowl needs, liver especially, which arrives carrying vitamin A, B12, copper and iron. Protein converts to 38.1% of dry matter, a good showing for a tin with this much garden in it.

Broth matches the meat at 29%. The word broth on the label tells you the moisture brings flavour and a little dissolved nutrition along with it. Which animal it came from is left unsaid.

The plant side is carrot at 14%, courgette at 12% and apple at 4%, and millet at 10% is the only cereal. Millet is gluten free, easy on most dogs and rich in B vitamins, so it is a sensible grain to choose. Between it and the vegetables, though, the estimated carbohydrate reaches 40.1% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. That is the shape of this recipe, and it is the trade the short list asks you to make.

Coconut flour at 1% and rapeseed oil round the recipe out, with sage, chervil and thyme each at 0.2% as seasoning. The added panel is dosed in print, vitamin D3 at 192 IU with zinc, manganese, copper and iodine each given per kilo, which is more declaration than a lot of wet labels bother with.

Price and value

Both sizes, 385g and 780g, are sold on their own or in a six pack.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 840 kcal a day by the standard maintenance sum (110 × bodyweight^0.75), and this recipe supplies that in about 837 grams. A dog of 10kg to 20kg is put at 550 to 800 grams a day on the label's own guide.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

100.4 kcal/100g

Protein

9.8%

Fat

3.4%

Fibre

1.1%

Ash

1.1%

Moisture

74.3%

Dry weight

Protein

38.1%

Fat

13.2%

Fibre

4.3%

Ash

4.3%

Carbs

40.1%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

29%

Added water

29%

Carbs

11%

Veg

30%

Oils

0.2%

Other

0.8%