Lily's Kitchen Trays Puppy review

Our Excellent band is where this tray finishes, alongside the middle of the wet puppy field, which is a competitive place to land rather than an easy one. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, the recipe and the analysis agreeing with each other, while protein and processing and value both read Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (67%), Potatoes (2%), Carrots (1%), Vitamins & Chelated Minerals, Salmon Oil. Herbs & botanicals: Golden Rod, Nettle, Aniseed, Celery Seed, Rosehips, Marigold Petals, Cleavers, Seaweed, Alfalfa, Milk Thistle, Dandelion Root, Burdock Root.

This recipe is fresh chicken at 67% and very little else. Potatoes at 2% and carrots at 1% are the supporting cast. British dog food uses chicken more than any other meat, and with good reason: it digests easily and dogs eat it eagerly. That very popularity is why a small number of dogs meet trouble with it.

Fresh meat carries its water into the mix, so the finished tray holds less chicken than 67% implies. What remains is still the great majority of the food, and the analysis confirms it. Protein of 10.6% as fed becomes 53.0% of dry matter once the 80.0% moisture is taken out, with fat converting to 25.5%.

Starch is barely present. The potatoes are a binder more than a food at 2%. The carbohydrate estimate of 1.8% as fed works out at 9.0% of dry matter, under the 13.6% that is typical of wet puppy recipes. Fibre is light too at 2.5% of dry matter, which most young digestions handle without fuss.

Salmon oil is the only ingredient bringing another animal into the tray. It is there for the long chain omega 3s that support a puppy's brain and coat as they develop, and it is the reason fish turns up in the allergen picture for a chicken recipe.

The herb and botanical run at the end is named plant by plant, from golden rod and nettle through aniseed, rosehips, marigold petals, cleavers, seaweed, alfalfa, milk thistle, dandelion root and burdock root. All of them are trace quantities, part of the brand's character rather than a nutritional argument.

Ash converts to 10.0% of dry matter, so minerals are present in sensible quantity, but the label lists its vitamins and chelated minerals without a dose against any of them and prints no calcium figure. That gap is worth naming on a growth food, and it matters most if you are rearing a puppy who will finish large.

£11.33 a kilo, sold in 150g trays.

No single daily amount holds good for a growing dog. Start from the maker's guide for your pup's current age and their expected adult weight, then let their waistline settle the fine tuning.