Terra Canis Low Mineral Diet: Chicken review

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (24% chicken stomach, 21% chicken heart, 5% chicken muscle meat), broth 20%, carrot 6%, pumpkin 6%, potato 4%, fennel 3%, celery 2%, rapeseed oil 2%, broccoli 1%, minerals 1%, lingonberry*, parsnip*, artichoke leaf*, sage*, marigold*, dandelion*, stinging nettle*, basil*, coconut flour*, spirulina*, oyster shell* *dried

The two flavours are put together to the same plan. One named meat opens the list, broth comes second, then a vegetable run: potato at 4%, then fennel at 3% and celery at 2%. The only added oil is rapeseed at 2%, and minerals are declared at 1%.

Each list tails off into dried plants: lingonberry, parsnip, artichoke leaf, sage, marigold, dandelion, stinging nettle and basil, with coconut flour, spirulina and oyster shell alongside them. All of that sits under the 1% line, so it weighs very little whatever it is there to do. Ground oyster shell is worth pointing out by name on a recipe sold for restricted minerals, since it is a calcium source rather than a herb.

Both flavours print the same analysis. Protein is declared at 9.1% and fat at 3.9%, converting to 39.1% and 16.7% of dry matter, with the carbohydrate estimate at 33.5% of dry matter and energy at 91 kcal per 100g.

Crude ash is the label's measure of total mineral matter, and it reads 1.4%, or 6.0% of dry matter. Calcium lands at 0.86% of dry matter. Both figures sit lower than a general purpose wet food would print. That is deliberate on a diet built to hold minerals down.

The added vitamins and trace minerals each carry a dose in print, vitamin A and vitamin D3 first, then iodine, copper, manganese and zinc. The label's own guide asks for 250 to 400 grams a day for a dog of 2 to 5kg, rising to 1150 to 1500 grams at 20 to 30kg. On a restricted diet the portion normally comes from the surgery that prescribed it. Read the table as the maker's starting point and leave the decision with your vet.

Chicken makes up half of this recipe and Terra Canis splits it in print. Chicken stomach is 24%, chicken heart 21% and chicken muscle meat 5%, so offal carries far more of it than muscle. Broth follows at 20%, with carrot and pumpkin at 6% each and broccoli at 1%. No other meat is named anywhere on the list. That matters where other proteins have been ruled out. The feeding table stops at a single row for a 40kg dog, at 1500 grams a day.

Each flavour comes as a 400g unit at £11.66 a kilo, singly or in packs of 6. On the label's own guide a 15kg dog would eat around 925 grams a day, which puts the rate at £10.79 a day.