Orygo Puppy Pate review

Reaching our Outstanding band puts this can a step above the typical adult wet food, which sits in our Excellent band, so it is clearing a bar the category already sets high. This can arrives comfortably, and the reason is legible from the first line: nine tenths of it is named animal protein, and the parts are printed rather than pooled under a category term. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, with protein and processing just behind at Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: 90% Fresh Meat and Fish (58% Fresh Turkey, 27% Fresh Salmon, 5% Fresh Chicken Liver), 4% Sweet Potato, Tapioca, Beet Fibre, Orygoformula 2.6% (Products Resulting from Yeast Fermentation, S. Cerevisiae, Turmeric Longa, Olive Oil, Inulin, Chicory Pulp, Sage, Quinoa, Mint, Fennel, Yucca Mojave, Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, Valerian, Cranberry Extract, Pomegranate Extract, Milk Thistle, Liquorice, Aloe Vera Without Aloin, Extract Artichoke, Prooil, Egg Membrane, Trout Oil 500 mg/kg).

Turkey leading at 58% is a sensible choice for a puppy. It is easy to digest, low in fat next to most poultry and reliably palatable. It is also a less common meat than chicken, which gives an owner room to manoeuvre later if a sensitivity ever shows up. Fresh salmon at 27% brings the marine oils along with it, and fresh chicken liver at 5% adds the vitamin A, B12 and copper that liver is prized for.

One honest caveat on the animal side: the chicken liver, the turkey and the salmon between them mean this is a three animal recipe, and the trout oil in the blend makes fish unavoidable. It is a generous label, not a restricted one, which is exactly what most puppies want and exactly what an allergy work up does not.

The plant side is small and quiet. Sweet potato at 4% is a gentle, well tolerated starch with useful fibre. Tapioca is starch and almost nothing else, which makes it a filler in quantity, though there is clearly little of it here. Estimated carbohydrate converts to 11.2% of dry matter against 15.8% for adult wet food. Beet fibre works on the gut, not on the calorie count.

Everything else in the can sits in the 2.6% Orygoformula block. It holds quinoa, inulin, chicory pulp, olive oil, turmeric and yeast fermentation products, with a run of culinary herbs beside them. Extracts of cranberry and pomegranate are there too, along with milk thistle, artichoke, aloe vera, egg membrane and trout oil at 500 mg/kg. Inulin and the yeast derivatives are genuine prebiotics, and a settled gut is welcome in a puppy. At this share, though, the blend is a flourish and not a working dose of anything.

The analysis reads well for growth in the areas the label does cover. Protein converts to 46.0% of dry matter and fat to 35.2%, with energy at 142 kcal per 100g. Each of the added vitamins, A, D3 and E, carries a printed figure. Calcium is the number to weigh. At 0.65% of dry matter it is enough for a small or medium puppy fed sensibly, and it sits on the light side of what a giant breed skeleton usually asks for. That is a portioning conversation, and no reason to look elsewhere.

Sold as a 400g can. No checked per-kilo figure was held for this recipe when the page was written, so no per-kilo or per-day figure appears.

On portions, an adult dog of 15kg in moderate condition would eat about 590 grams a day, using the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, roughly 840 kcal for a dog that size. A growing puppy needs far more food than a grown dog of the same size. Our estimate puts a 10kg puppy at 746 to 912 grams a day under four months, easing to 498 to 608 grams between four and twelve months.