Wainwright's Adult Trays: Lamb with Brown Rice review

All three trays sit in our Excellent band, with nothing between them, so let your dog's history with each animal make the choice. The typical wet adult food sits in the Excellent band too. This is a strong category, and these trays are thoroughly at home in it.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb (70%), Brown Rice (4%), Dried Peas (2.5%, equivalent to 8% peas), Dried Carrots (1%, equivalent to 8% carrots), Sweet Potato (1%), Minerals, Dried Alfalfa, Pear, Dried Seaweed (0.12%), Dried Herbs (Parsley, Rosemary, Fennel, Marigold Flowers), Flaxseed Oil (0.08%), Chicory Root Powder (as a source of Prebiotic Fructo-oligosaccharide) (0.05%), Yucca Extract (0.005%)

The headline is a single meat at 70%, declared as one plain entry rather than a parade of cuts. Whichever tray you pick, that animal is the only one in it, and no fish oil turns up further down the list, so each flavour holds together as a genuine one-animal recipe. Flaxseed oil, declared at 0.08%, carries the omega fats instead.

There is one cereal, brown rice at 4%, and it is doing modest work. Carbohydrate converts to between 11.4% and 15.4% of dry matter depending on the tray. That is at or below the 15.8% typical for a wet adult food, so the analysis reads the way a 70% meat label should.

The vegetables are printed with unusual candour: dried peas at 2.5% with a note that this is equivalent to 8% fresh peas, and dried carrots at 1%, equivalent to 8% fresh. Drying concentrates an ingredient, so the equivalence sums are honest arithmetic that most labels skip. Sweet potato at 1% rounds out the plants.

The tail runs from dried alfalfa and pear through seaweed at 0.12% to yucca at 0.005%, with chicory root at 0.05% earning its place as a prebiotic FOS source. These are seasoning levels, and the label prints them as such rather than letting them pad the front of pack.

The added panel is short and fully dosed: vitamins A, D3 and E, then zinc, iron, copper and iodine. A recipe that starts at 70% meat brings more of its own micronutrition to the tray than a cereal-led one does, which is why the maker can get away with adding so little.

The gentlest tray of the range, leanest at 29.3% of dry matter fat and lightest at an estimated 119 kcal per 100g, so portions run largest here. Its mineral content also reads highest, with ash converting to 22.4% of dry matter. A dog kept off the birds has an obvious choice here.

Every flavour works out at £3.58 a kilo from the box of twelve 395g trays. The chicken and lamb are also sold as single 395g trays, which come to £4.28 a kilo; the turkey is boxed only.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 579 to 707 grams a day depending on the tray, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at between £2.07 and £2.53 a day.