Terra Canis Hypoallergenic Wet Food: Water buffalo with sweet potato review

Every one of these tins reads Outstanding, the antelope with them. Adult wet food does well on our scoring and its midpoint sits in our Excellent band, so every tin here clears the middle of a strong field by a step. The antelope's transparency reads Excellent where the other four reach Outstanding, and the visible difference on that label is its closing entry, given only as nutrients where the others name their minerals and stop. What makes these tins useful is precisely what makes them plain.

Ingredients, as declared: Water Buffalo Muscle Meat (60%), Sweet Potato (36%), Linseed Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Seaweed, Minerals.

The construction never varies: 60% muscle meat from one animal, 36% of one plant, then linseed oil, rapeseed oil and seaweed, with the minerals at the end. Nothing here is a category term apart from the antelope's last entry, and nothing on any of the five lists came from a second animal. For an elimination trial that is the whole game, because a single unnamed fat or a splash of fish oil would undo it.

Both oils are plant oils, which is the quiet detail that makes these tins work. Linseed oil carries plant omega-3 and rapeseed oil is light and low in saturated fat. Between them they meet the fat requirement without a drop of fish or an unnamed animal fat going near the recipe.

The carbohydrate is one vegetable, chosen to be as unfamiliar as the meat wherever possible. That is parsnip on the kangaroo and the ostrich, Jerusalem artichoke on the horse, sweet potato on the water buffalo and potato on the antelope. Jerusalem artichoke earns a mention of its own, since it is rich in inulin, a fibre that feeds the bacteria in a dog's gut rather than the dog.

Seaweed is the only ingredient on the list doing a supplementary job. It brings iodine along, and a wide range of other minerals with it. The added panel is the fullest of any range from this maker. Vitamin A is joined by D and E, then thiamine, riboflavin, B6, B12, biotin, pantothenic acid and folic acid, each dosed in print. Copper, manganese, iodine and zinc are there as well. A food meant to be fed on its own for weeks needs a panel like that, and it is good to see it spelled out.

What the analysis shows is that one recipe fed five ways is still five different diets. Protein runs from 33.5% of dry matter on the horse to 55.6% on the ostrich, and fat from 11.2% on the kangaroo to 40.8% on the horse. The animal decides, because nothing else in the tin is there to level it out.

Water buffalo muscle meat at 60% with sweet potato at 36%. Fat converts to 40.4% of dry matter and energy to an estimated 117 kcal per 100g, so it feeds much like the horse tin. The sweet potato gives it the sweetest flavour of the set for a dog who needs persuading.

Every recipe in this range comes in a 400g can.

A moderate build 15kg adult dog needs in the region of 840 kcal a day, taking 110 × bodyweight^0.75 as the maintenance sum. That lands between 559 grams on the horse tin and 1162 grams on the kangaroo. The leaner the animal, the larger the daily amount, which is worth planning for if you are feeding a big dog on the kangaroo.