Collards Wet Dog Food Tray Puppy: Duck & Rice review

Every tray in the range reads in our Excellent band, and the middle of the wet puppy shelf reads there too. This range keeps company with a strong field. Transparency reads Outstanding on every tray and nutritional balance no lower than Excellent, protein and processing reaches Excellent on the duck and the turkey, and value reads Excellent throughout.

What lifts them is the shape of the analysis, not any single flourish. Protein and fat both convert high once the water comes out. Carbohydrate runs between 8.0% and 18.3% of dry matter across the four, with the 13.6% typical of wet puppy food sitting in the middle of that spread. A short list, a big named meat share and figures that agree with the front of the pack is a combination that holds up well.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck 60%, Brown Rice 20%, Carrots 5%, Peas 5%, Potatoes 5%, Minerals, Dried Plasma, Sunflower Oil, Salmon Oil, Dried Kelp, Dried Basil.

Every tray is built the same way: a named animal at 60%, brown rice at 20%, then carrot, pea and potato at 5% each. That is a genuinely short list for a complete puppy food, and almost nothing on it needs decoding. Brown rice is the whole grain and not the polished version, so it brings its fibre and B vitamins along with the starch.

Dried plasma is the one entry most owners will not recognise. It is a protein-rich fraction taken from animal blood, used in wet foods for palatability and for how easily young animals digest it. No species is named for it. On a strict exclusion diet that is worth knowing, though it matters less if you are simply choosing a meat you prefer.

Sunflower oil and salmon oil handle the fats between them, the plant and marine sides both covered, with sunflower oil bringing natural vitamin E along with it. Because of that salmon oil, fish sits on the allergen picture for every recipe in the range, including the ones led by a bird or by lamb.

Dried kelp and dried basil close each list. Kelp brings iodine naturally, along with a wide spread of trace minerals. A small amount goes a long way, and that is why it sits at the tail of the list and not the head. The basil is a garnish, not a nutritional plank.

The added panel is printed with doses: vitamin D3 at 420 iu per kilo, vitamin E at 40 mg, a B complex at 26.3 mg. Then zinc sulphate monohydrate at 107.14 mg and manganese sulphate at 11.72 mg, with calcium iodate and sodium selenite at the trace end. What the analysis does not carry anywhere in the range is a calcium figure, and on a growth food that is the omission worth chasing the maker about.

Duck at 60% is the only meat in this tray, and on paper it is the richest of the four. Fat converts to 30.0% of dry matter and protein to 36.7%, with moisture declared at 70.0%, the lowest reading in the range. That is why the energy estimate of 134 kcal per 100g is the highest here. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 18.3% of dry matter, a little above the wet puppy typical of 13.6%. Duck sits well with most young digestions and is a useful option for a pup who has already met chicken and turkey.

£4.25 a kilo, sold as single 400g trays.

You feed more of a wet food than of a kibble, and a puppy's share climbs week by week with age and with the size they are growing towards. Build the tray into a plan you revisit regularly, not a single amount fixed once and left there.