Barking Heads Puppy Days Wet Food review

This recipe reaches our Excellent band, and it does so in strong company, because wet puppy food as a category already sits at that level. Rather than resting on the line, it clears the middle of the field comfortably.

Protein and processing reads Excellent for this one, with nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding above it.

Ingredients, as declared: 85% Chicken includes - Fresh Deboned Chicken (60%), Chicken Broth (25%), Sweet Potato, Carrot, Courgette, Peas, Salmon Oil, Sunflower Oil, Lucerne, Seaweed, Parsley, Celery, Chicory Root, Nettle, Turmeric, Aniseed, Minerals

Chicken at 85% is split for you on the label: 60% fresh deboned meat and 25% broth. Broth is largely water, so the meat doing the nutritional work is that 60% figure, and it is a generous one for a wet food. The analysis agrees, with protein converting to 45.8% of dry matter and fat to 29.2%, which is the energy a growing pup burns through in a day.

Almost nothing here is starch. Sweet potato, carrot, courgette and peas follow the chicken without percentages beside them, and the carbohydrate estimate comes out at 11.3% of dry matter where a wet puppy food typically runs at 13.6%. Fibre is light at 3.3% of dry matter, which most puppy digestion handles easily.

The oils are named, and that matters. Salmon oil supplies marine omega 3 for brain and coat development while sunflower oil brings a light unsaturated fat rich in vitamin E. A wet food that says only oils and fats tells you nothing at all by comparison.

The botanical run at the end is unusual in a puppy food: lucerne, seaweed, parsley, celery, chicory root, nettle, turmeric and aniseed. Chicory root is the one with a job you can point at, since it supplies the prebiotic fibre that feeds gut bacteria, and seaweed contributes iodine along with other minerals. The rest sit at seasoning level.

What the label does not print is calcium, and in a food offered to pups of every adult size that is the gap worth flagging. Ash converts to 10.4% of dry matter, so the minerals are clearly present, but the split is simply not published. An owner rearing a large breed will want that number from the maker before this becomes the only thing in the bowl.

Energy is our estimate at 108 kcal per 100g, close to the 106 a typical wet puppy food carries. The vitamin and trace element panel is printed, with vitamin D3 and vitamin E alongside zinc, manganese, copper and iodine.

£6.25 a kilo, sold in 300g packs in boxes of 10, 20, 30 and 40.

A wet bowl fills quickly, so weigh against the feeding guide for the size your pup is growing into and adjust by how they are covering over the ribs. Growing appetites climb steeply for a few months before levelling off, and the amount in the bowl should follow them.