Terra Canis Low Mineral Diet: Horse review

Ingredients, as declared: horse muscle meat 52%, broth 22%, potato 4%, pumpkin 4%, carrot 4%, fennel 3%, celery 2%, rapeseed oil 2%, broccoli 2%, minerals 1%*, lingonberry, parsnip*, coconut flour*, artichoke leaf*, sage*, marigold*, dandelion*, stinging nettle*, basil*, oyster shell*, spirulina* *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.

Horse muscle meat leads at 52%, all of it muscle rather than organ, with broth behind it at 22%. The vegetables are dialled back here, potato, pumpkin and carrot at 4% apiece and broccoli at 2%. Few dogs will ever have met horse, which is one reason it turns up in diets of this sort. This recipe uses no other meat. This label's guide carries further than the chicken one, to between 1500 and 1800 grams a day for a dog of 30 to 40kg.

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.