K9 Optimum Puppy Can review

K9 Optimum Puppy Can comes out in our Good band. The middle of the wet puppy category sits a band higher, in our Excellent band, and that is a strong field, so this tin comes in behind the pack average. Its pillars are not quite level: nutritional balance reads Outstanding and transparency Excellent, with protein and processing and value each reading Good.

The meat share and the short, readable list are what carry it. What holds it back is the mineral side, with ash and calcium both converting high. This tin is sold for pups of any adult size, so that weighs more heavily than it would on an adult recipe. The rest of the analysis is genuinely strong, with protein at 40.0% of dry matter and carbohydrate at an estimated 14.5%, close to the 13.6% the wet puppy field runs at.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (50%), Minerals, Potato Starch, Poultry Plasma (1%), Dried Carrot, Dried Potato, Flaxseed Oil, Salmon Oil, Dried Seaweed, Chicory Root Powder, Glucosamine Hcl, Chondroitin

Chicken at 50% does the heavy lifting, and the analysis bears out what the front of the tin says. Protein converts to 40.0% of dry matter and fat to 30.0%, which is the profile of a meat-built food. Poultry plasma at 1% follows, a protein fraction used at small inclusion, though the word poultry, not chicken, means it is the one animal entry that does not name its species.

Potato starch is the binder and the only real source of starch, which keeps the recipe free of cereal and keeps carbohydrate down to an estimated 2.9% as fed. Dried carrot and dried potato sit behind it in small measure, the carrot bringing a little natural fibre and vitamin A. Dried seaweed and chicory root powder close out the plant side, the seaweed as a broad mineral source and the chicory as a prebiotic.

The fats come from two directions. Flaxseed oil brings plant omega 3 and salmon oil the marine sort. For a growing brain and coat, the marine form does more. Fish shows on the allergen picture because of that salmon oil, and chicken remains the only meat named. Worth knowing if you are working around a fish sensitivity.

The mineral loading is where this label needs care. Ash converts to 15.0% of dry matter and calcium to 5.0%, and while growing bones do draw heavily on both, that calcium figure sits well above the range growth plans normally work to. It is not a reason to strike the tin off your list. It is a genuine reason to talk portions and mixing through with your vet, all the more so if your pup will finish large.

The tail carries glucosamine HCl and chondroitin with no doses printed against them. Read them as a nod towards joints, not as a working programme. Every added vitamin and trace mineral carries a printed dose: vitamin E at 40 mg/kg, iron at 15 mg/kg, zinc at 20 mg/kg and L-carnitine at 25 mg/kg. That last one is there to help fat become usable energy.

Energy here is our estimate, not a declared figure, and it lands at 89 kcal per 100g against 106 for the typical puppy wet food. Combined with 80.0% declared moisture, that means a decent volume of food goes into the bowl each day, which is normal for wet feeding but worth picturing before you order.

£2.99 a kilo, sold in a 6 x 390g multipack.

Wet food goes down in far bigger portions than kibble, and a puppy's ration climbs steeply before it settles. Weigh against the growth guide rather than counting tins, and keep adjusting as the months go by.