Terra Canis Low Fat Diet: Chicken review

Ingredients, as declared: chicken 35% (chicken stomach 16%, chicken heart 11%, chicken muscle meat 8%), broth 34%, cucumber 6%, carrot 6%, pumpkin 6%, broccoli 3%, pineapple 2%, cellulose 2% *, lupin meal 2% *, parsnip 1% *, minerals 1% *, fennel, coconut flour *, artichoke leaf *, psyllium husks *, psyllium seed *, dandelion *, marigold *, yarrow *, basil *, brewer's yeast *, chia seed *, oyster shell *, spirulina * *dried

Both tins keep to one animal. The first recipe has chicken and nothing else, the second kangaroo and nothing else. Neither adds a fish oil or an unnamed animal fat, so an exclusion plan can be run off these lists without guesswork.

Neither recipe lists an added oil of any kind. What fat is in the tin comes from the meat itself. That is how the declared fat figures are held where they are, and on a diet described this way it is the whole intention.

Cellulose and lupin meal appear in both, with psyllium husks and psyllium seed behind them, so the fibre comes partly from material that passes straight through and partly from the kind that holds water. Coconut flour, artichoke leaf, brewer's yeast and chia seed are common to both lists, and each closes with oyster shell and spirulina alongside dried dandelion, marigold, yarrow, basil and fennel.

Both tins are worked out at 62 kcal per 100g. Energy that light means the bowl gets large. The printed guide asks 900 to 1300 grams a day for a dog of 10 to 20kg, which a small dog will get through more comfortably than a big one. On a restricted fat plan the daily amount is your vet's call, not the label's.

Each tin prints its own dose list, vitamin A and vitamin D3 with iodine, copper, manganese and zinc beside them, and minerals appear as an ingredient at 1% in both recipes. Neither label names a probiotic, a palatant or a preservative.

The chicken tin declares its meat at 35% and itemises it as stomach at 16%, heart at 11% and muscle meat at 8%, so organ meat carries most of the total. Broth is high here at 34%, with cucumber, carrot and pumpkin at 6% each, broccoli at 3%, pineapple, cellulose and lupin meal at 2%, and parsnip at 1%. Protein is declared at 6.9%, which is 40.4% of dry matter against 82.9% moisture, fat at 2.6%, or 15.2% dried down, and crude fibre at 1.8%, working out at 10.5%. The carbohydrate estimate is 4.7% as fed and 27.5% of dry matter.

Both come as 400g tins, singly or in packs of six. The chicken works out at £10.45 a kilo and the kangaroo at £11.66. On the label's guide a 15kg dog eats about 1353 grams a day, which puts the chicken at roughly £14.14 a day and the kangaroo at about £15.77.