Natures Menu Delicious Pate Pouches Puppy review

This pouch earns an Excellent from us, which is the band the wet puppy category reaches on average, so it is competing in a strong crowd. Nutritional balance and transparency both come back Outstanding, protein and processing reads Good, and value reads Excellent.

What lifts it is the protein reading, which converts higher than most wet foods manage, together with the near absence of anything on the label that is not meat. A label this short cuts both ways, since a fuller declaration would leave an owner with less to ask about, and the notes below set out where.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 48%, Lamb 20%, Rice 2%

Chicken at 48% and lamb at 20% make up almost the whole pouch, and the analysis follows them faithfully. Protein converts to 48.2% of dry matter, a level of meat protein that few wet growth foods reach. There is no third meat and no grouped derivative category tucked in behind them.

The lamb deserves a word of its own. It is a red meat sitting alongside the chicken, well liked by most dogs and easy to digest. It also broadens the amino acid and mineral picture compared with a recipe built on poultry alone. For a pup who has already found chicken a little rich, though, note that chicken is still the larger share here.

Rice at 2% is the only carbohydrate named, and the carbohydrate estimate lands at 13.6% of dry matter, sitting right on the typical for a puppy wet food. At 1.4% of dry matter the fibre is very low, and most young digestions handle that without difficulty.

Fat converts to 26.8% of dry matter and energy is a declared 104 kcal per 100g, close to the 106 that the category typically offers. That combination makes this a moderate pouch. It suits a steady grower and simply means a little more volume for a pup with a fast engine.

The added panel is a short one, printed per kilo: vitamin D3 at 200iu and vitamin E at 20mg, with zinc at 25mg, manganese at 1.4mg and iodine at 0.75mg. Ash converts to 10.0% of dry matter, so minerals are present in the quantity growth needs. With no calcium line published, the figure that matters most in rearing a large breed pup is left for the maker to supply.

£8.00 a kilo, sold in 300g pouches.

How many pouches a pup needs shifts with every fortnight of growth. Start from the guide for their age and the adult weight you expect, then rebalance as their shape changes.