Fleischeslust Classic Menu Junior: Juicy Beef with Cottage Cheese and Courgette review

Classic Menu Junior earns our Outstanding band in both recipes, a step above the band the typical wet puppy food occupies. The beef recipe is the stronger of the two by a whisker, and both read Excellent for protein and processing with nutritional balance and transparency Outstanding on each. What carries them is consistent: a large meat share broken down part by part, with the starch load kept modest. Calcium is printed and sits in range for growth.

Ingredients, as declared: 75 % Rind (Lunge, Herzen, Fleisch, Leber, Nieren, Euter, Pansen), 8.3 % Brühe, 4 % körniger Frischkäse, 3.3 % Zucchini, 3.3 % Karotte, Kartoffelstärke, Mineralstoffe, 0.2 % Hagebutte, Eierschalenmehl, Yuccawurzel, Bierhefe, 0.1 % Brennnessel, 0.1 % Seealge, 0.1 % Lachsöl.

Both recipes are 75% meat, and both name the cuts. On the beef pack: lung, heart, muscle meat, liver, kidney, udder, tripe. The turkey pack names meat with gizzards, hearts and liver. Written out like that, organ meat looks unfamiliar. No part of an animal is more nutrient dense. Liver especially is rich in vitamin A, B12, copper and iron, and it is easy to digest and very palatable. Naming each part is a level of honesty most wet food labels never attempt.

The moisture line is what makes this range read differently from most trays. Declared at 71.5% and 71.6%, it is lower than the wet food norm, which means more food and less water in every spoonful. Protein converts to 45.6% and 44.4% of dry matter and fat to 28.4% and 29.6%, figures that would flatter a kibble let alone a wet food. Energy lands at 142 kcal per 100g against the 106 typical of the wet puppy field.

Around the meat, the supporting cast is small and sensible. Broth at 8.3% carries the flavour, cottage cheese at 4% adds an easily digested dairy protein along with calcium, and the vegetables come in at 3.3% each. Potato starch binds the loaf, which is the one entry adding starch for its own sake and the reason carbohydrate converts to 17.9% of dry matter.

Eggshell meal is the calcium source, and it does the job well. Ash reads 7.4% on both recipes. The beef converts calcium to 0.95% of dry matter and the turkey to 1.06%. Both figures sit inside the range growth is built around, including the range large and giant breed pups want, which is exactly the reassurance a puppy label ought to give and so rarely does.

The botanical tail is where the two recipes take their own paths, and everything in it sits at trace level. Yucca root and brewer's yeast appear on both, the yeast bringing a natural spread of B vitamins with it. What the range does not publish is a dosed vitamin and trace element panel. The recipe names minerals and clearly meets the job, but an owner who likes to read the numbers will not find them here.

The beef recipe runs on 75% beef, and every part is named: lung, heart, muscle meat, liver, kidney, udder, tripe. Courgette and carrot at 3.3% each are its vegetables, and rosehip at 0.2% with nettle and seaweed at 0.1% each make up the botanical tail. Salmon oil at 0.1% brings a little marine omega 3 that the turkey recipe does not carry. Protein reads 13.0% as fed and 45.6% of dry matter on a declared moisture of 71.5%, with calcium converting to 0.95%. That salmon oil also puts fish in the pack. For a fish avoiding pup, that is the line to read.

Sold in 200g, 400g and 800g packs, with trays of 15 x 200g, 16 x 400g and 12 x 800g.

A growing dog's ration climbs steeply for a few months and then flattens out. The figure to feed is the one on the maker's chart for your pup's current weight and age. Revisit it as the pup changes.