Butchers Puppy Perfect Foil: Beef review

The beef and the turkey trays reach our Excellent band alongside the typical puppy wet food, and the chicken sits one step back in Good. This range holds its own in one of the strongest parts of the market. Protein and processing reads Good on every tray, with nutritional balance Outstanding. Value is Excellent for the beef and turkey trays and Good for the chicken.

The trays finish around the middle of that typical group, and what holds them there is not the recipe. It is the short declaration: a full analysis is printed, but calcium is not, and in a food offered for every size of puppy that is the line a big breed owner reaches for first.

Ingredients, as declared: British & Irish Farmed (Chicken 35%, Beef 20%), Salmon Oil (1%), Prebiotic (Mannan-Oligosaccharide 0.2%), Parsley, Rosehip, Chicory, Mint, Minerals.

British and Irish farmed meat leads all three trays and the label itemises it properly, giving each animal its own percentage. The analysis agrees with the front of the pack: protein converts to 47.2% of dry matter and fat to 33.3%. That is what a recipe made mostly of meat looks like once the water is taken out.

There is very little else in the tray. Carbohydrate estimates at 1.3% as fed, or 7.3% of dry matter, where the typical puppy wet food runs at 13.6%, and no grain, potato or thickening starch appears anywhere on the range. Fibre is minimal at 1.1% of dry matter, which most puppy digestion handles without comment.

Marine omega 3 comes from the salmon oil at 1%, and a growing brain and coat both draw on it. It is also the reason fish sits in the allergen picture of every tray. Mannan-oligosaccharide at 0.2% is a yeast-derived prebiotic, and it feeds the good bacteria living in the large intestine. That is a sensible thing to support while a pup's gut is still settling.

Parsley, rosehip, chicory and mint close the list. Chicory is the one doing real work, since the inulin in its root behaves as a soluble fibre and a second prebiotic alongside the mannan-oligosaccharide. The rest sit at seasoning level, so read them as a finishing touch.

The declared panel is complete as far as it goes: protein 8.5%, fat 6.0%, fibre 0.2%, ash 2.0% and moisture 82.0%, with energy at 85 kcal per 100g. Ash converts to 11.1% of dry matter, a reasonable mineral load for bone being laid down quickly, but calcium itself is left off, which is the gap a large breed owner will notice.

Vitamins A, D3 and E are dosed per kilo behind the meat, with zinc at 20 mg, manganese at 2.5 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg alongside them. It is a modest panel, printed where you can check it.

The beef tray is not beef alone. Chicken leads it at 35% with beef behind at 20%, so the name on the front describes the character of the recipe more than its animal content. Both meats therefore sit in the allergen picture, joined by fish from the salmon oil. Everything else, from the analysis to the herbs, matches the rest of the range.

£3.61 a kilo, sold in 4 x 150g and 24 x 150g tray packs.

How much goes in the bowl shifts from one week to the next while a pup is growing, so take the tray guide as your starting point and let your pup's shape decide the rest. For a sense of scale, our own energy estimate puts a 10kg pup aged four to twelve months at roughly 834 to 1019 grams a day. Wet food feeds in much bigger volumes than kibble.