McIntyres Puppy Pouches: Chicken & Rice review

Our Average band is where these pouches land, and the distance to the wet puppy field is wide, since the typical example there reaches our Excellent band. The reason sits almost entirely in what the label declares rather than in a failure of the analysis. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding and transparency Good, while protein and processing reads Poor because the composition is written in legal categories instead of foods. Where the label does put a number down it earns credit, with calcium printed and in the growth range and protein converting to 42.1% of dry matter, a respectable figure for a wet food.

Ingredients, as declared: the pack prints a SEPARATE composition for each variety in the box (transcribed from the back-of-pack panel): With Beef & Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Beef), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars. With Chicken & Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Chicken), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars. With Lamb & Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Lamb), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars. With Poultry & Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Poultry), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars. What the website publishes instead (one merged list for the whole box), Meat And Animal Derivatives (39%), Beef (4%), Cereals, Uncooked Rice (2%), Cooked Rice (4%), Oils And Fats, Fish Oil (1%), Minerals, Derivatives Of Vegetable Origin, Chicory, Various Sugars, Chicken (4%), Lamb (4%), Poultry (4%)

The composition leans on umbrella terms that labelling law permits. Meat and animal derivatives at 39% tells you the material came from slaughtered warm-blooded land animals and no more than that. Beyond the 4% of named meat, which animal it was, and which part of it, stays unknown. That vagueness is not proof of poor material, but it does take away your ability to check.

Cereals is the heading over the rice, declared as 1.5% uncooked and equivalent to 4% cooked, and oils and fats is the heading over 1.0% fish oil. The fish oil is a genuinely good inclusion. It brings the omega 3s a growing puppy puts to work in the brain, in the coat and in the joints. It is also the one ingredient here named clearly enough to be sure of.

Derivatives of vegetable origin covers chicory at 0.08%. Inulin comes from chicory root, and it is the prebiotic fibre the helpful gut bacteria feed on. Even under a broad heading, a small amount of it is a thoughtful addition.

Various sugars is the entry that gives most owners pause. Sugar goes into wet food because dogs eat more readily with it. Its place on the list implies a small quantity, and it earns that place on taste alone.

The analysis is better than the ingredient list leads you to expect. Protein at 8.0% as fed converts to 42.1% of dry matter and fat at 7.0% to 36.8%, with carbohydrate estimated at only 8.0% of dry matter, comfortably under the 13.6% typical of wet puppy food. Moisture is declared at 81.0% and energy at 96 kcal per 100g, a shade under the 106 typical.

Calcium is declared at 1.58% of dry matter, and that deserves credit on a label which otherwise says so little. It falls inside the range growth needs, large breeds included, and owners of big pups tend to make that check before any other.

The added panel is short and printed in full: 140 IU of vitamin D3, 12 mg of vitamin E, 12 mg of zinc and 0.3 mg of iodine in every kilogram. Cassia gum at 1700 mg does the gelling that gives the jelly its set.

The chicken pouch declares 4% chicken within the same 39% derivatives block. No meat goes into British dog food more often than chicken, so this is familiar territory for a young dog. That same popularity is also why more dogs react to chicken than to any other meat. Keep it in mind if your pup has an unsettled tummy.

£2.50 a kilo, sold in a box of 12 x 100g pouches.

How many pouches a day a puppy needs keeps changing. The maker's guide sets it by age and by the adult size the pup is growing towards. Expect the number to move as they do.