Terra Canis Grain-Free Wet Food: Duck with pumpkin, Strawberry and Elderflower review

Four of these tins land in our Outstanding band, with the duck, the veal and the wild boar well behind them in our Good band. The midpoint of adult wet food is an Excellent band tin and the field is strong, so the four in front hold clear above that middle. The three built on a broth read Average for protein and processing and come in under it. There is a spread inside the range on how much each label prints as well, though transparency reads Outstanding on all seven. That difference is about how much each label spells out rather than about what goes into the tin.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck 46% (duck heart 43%, duck liver 3%), broth 18%, pumpkin 10%, carrot 8%, courgette 4%, celery 4%, apple 3%, melon 3%, sweet chestnut, strawberry 1%, minerals 1%*, rapeseed oil, brewer's yeast*, elderflower 0.2%*, psyllium husks*, oyster shell*, chervil*, dandelion*, basil*, mineral clay*, parsley*, andean salt, spirulina*, *dried, Ratio Meat : vegetables/fruit/herbs : other raw ingredients = 56 % : 40 % : 4 %

Two label styles share this shelf. The beef, chicken, lamb and turkey tins are written as a straight list with the organs percentaged and no broth at all. Beef heart muscle meat at 43%, chicken heart at 28%, lamb heart at 42% and turkey heart at 58% each open their own label. The duck, veal and wild boar tins follow the older house pattern, giving the meat as a headline percentage with a broth behind it and a printed ratio at the end.

Taking the cereal out has been done properly rather than swapped for something starchier. Estimated carbohydrate runs from 10.2% of dry matter on the beef to 23.0% on the turkey, clustering close to the 15.8% that is typical for adult wet food. Grain free here describes the analysis and not just the front of the tin.

Pumpkin does much of the work the grain used to, with parsnip, carrot, celeriac and courgette around it and fruit filling the rest: apple, melon, mango, blackberry, peach and blackcurrant between the seven. Coconut flour and pumpkin seed flour bind, psyllium adds soluble fibre for the gut, and linseed oil or rapeseed oil carries the added fat.

Fat is where these recipes differ most, from 17.7% of dry matter on the turkey to 35.9% on the beef. That is the honest consequence of building a tin from one animal's heart and lung and letting the animal decide the analysis. The beef and the lamb feel considerably richer in the bowl than the turkey or the duck do.

The tail is this maker's signature: brewer's yeast for natural B vitamins, oyster shell for calcium, seaweed and mineral clay for trace minerals. Pollen turns up on a couple of labels and spirulina on others, all of it at trace level. The added panel is printed with doses on every tin, most often vitamin A, D3 and E alongside copper, iodine and zinc per kilo.

Duck at 46%, nearly all of it heart at 43%, on a broth at 18%, with pumpkin, carrot, courgette and celery behind and a little melon and strawberry for sweetness. At 62 kcal per 100g it is the lightest tin here, so daily amounts run largest on this one.

The veal and the wild boar recipes are £6.42 a kilo. Cans run 200g, 400g and 800g depending on the recipe, and the wild boar is in the 200g and 400g only.

On the standard maintenance sum of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day. This range covers that in between 788 and 1353 grams depending on which tin is in the bowl. For the two recipes we hold a figure for, that works out at about £5.64 a day on the wild boar and £6.27 on the veal. A dog of 10kg to 20kg is put at 650 to 1100 grams by the label's own guide.