Optimum Pet Health Puppy Trays review

This recipe holds our Excellent band and finishes clear of the midpoint, in a strong field whose middle already reaches that same band. Construction gets it there, with no flourish needed: one meat at a generous share, and 8.0% of dry matter as starch against the 13.6% typical of the category. At 121 kcal per 100g it carries more energy than the 106 of a typical puppy wet food. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, with protein and processing and value in Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: 68443back.jpg (68443_04, single 395g tray)): Chicken (65%), Dried Peas, Dried Carrot, Minerals, Salmon Oil (0.1%), Prebiotic MOS (0.1% including beta glucans 0.03%), Prebiotic Chicory (0.1% including inulin 0.06%), Dried Algae (0.035%, source of omega 3), Dried Rosehip (0.015%), Blueberry extract (0.015%), Tyndallised Lactobacillus helveticus HA-122 (0.0035%), Tyndallised Lacticaseibacillus paracasei HA-108 (0.0035%).

Chicken at 65% drives this recipe, and the analysis agrees with what the front of the tray says. Protein converts to 40.0% of dry matter and fat to 36.0%, with the carbohydrate estimate landing at 8.0%. That is the shape of a meal built on meat, with the plant side held to dried peas and dried carrot.

Whole dried peas carry fibre and B vitamins, along with a spread of minerals and their starch. Dried carrot adds vitamin A and a little soluble fibre. Neither appears in the sort of quantity that would start doing the meat's job. That is what you want sitting behind a 65% headline.

The gut package is small but specific. Prebiotic MOS at 0.1% includes beta glucans at 0.03%, and prebiotic chicory at 0.1% includes inulin at 0.06%. Both work on the large intestine's bacteria, not on the pup directly. Two tyndallised cultures at 0.0035% apiece close the list.

Salmon oil at 0.1% and dried algae at 0.035% cover the marine omega 3 a growing brain and coat need. That is also what puts fish into the allergen picture, chicken being the only meat named on the tray.

Ash converts to 12.0% of dry matter, which tells you the mineral load is generous, but the label stops short of printing calcium. That single figure is what large breed growth turns on, so no claim about rearing a big pup can rest on it here. Small and medium pups are unaffected. Owners whose pup is heading for a large adult frame will want to ask the maker or the vet.

Dried rosehip and blueberry extract at 0.015% apiece sit right at the garnish end of the list, antioxidant touches and not working ingredients. The recipe is honest enough to declare them at that level and not let them look like more than they are.

£4.22 a kilo, sold as a single 395g tray and in a 12 x 395g multipack.

What a puppy gets through keeps moving as they put on frame. Set the tray count from how your pup is filling out and from the growth chart on the pack, then look at it again every couple of weeks.