Pets at Home Complete Nutrition Puppy Meaty Selection in Jelly review

Our reading puts this selection in the Average band, with the typical wet puppy tray sitting well above it in our Excellent band. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding, since the dry matter figures behind the water are perfectly decent. Protein and processing reads Poor: a recipe built from four headings leaves an owner guessing at what is in the tray, and the added sugar and gum pull it down further. Transparency reads Outstanding for the figures the tray does print.

Ingredients, as declared: With Chicken and Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (38%, including 4% Chicken), Cereals (including 1.6% Dried Rice equivalent to 4% Rice), Minerals, Various Sugars. With Turkey and Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (38%, including 4% Turkey), Cereals (including 1.6% Dried Rice equivalent to 4% Rice), Minerals, Various Sugars. With Beef and Rice in Jelly: Meat and Animal Derivatives (38%, including 4% Beef), Cereals (including 1.6% Dried Rice equivalent to 4% Rice), Minerals, Various Sugars.

Every tray in the box is written to a single formula, with the named meat as the only variable. The animal content is declared at 38%, and 4% of it carries a name: chicken, turkey or beef, depending which tray you open. The remainder sits inside a legal category covering the good and the very ordinary alike, and nothing on the label separates the two.

Behind the meat sits a cereal heading, and inside it 1.6% dried rice, which the pack says is equivalent to 4% rice. Rice is a reasonable thing to give a young digestion. The rest of the grain is not named, and in a food eaten daily for months that is the sort of gap worth noticing.

The sugar line is the one that would most improve by leaving. It is in there to make the tray more tempting, which a puppy rarely needs, and a growth food is the last place a habit of sweetened meals wants forming.

Cassia gum comes in at 2700mg per kilogram to set the jelly. Thickeners of this kind are common in jelly trays, and there is a live argument about their place in everyday feeding. On a food a pup eats twice a day, we would sooner it were not needed.

Once the moisture is taken out the analysis holds up. Protein of 8.0% converts to 44.4% of dry matter, fat of 5.0% to 27.8%, and the carbohydrate estimate to 13.9% of dry matter against a 13.6% typical for wet puppy food. Energy is on the light side at 75 kcal per 100g where the typical tray gives 106, so portions run large.

Calcium reads 1.67% of dry matter, which small pups will make good use of and which runs beyond what large breed rearing usually plans around. The added panel is short, with vitamin D3 at 192 IU, vitamin E at 19mg, and trace elements covering iron, zinc, manganese, iodine and copper.

£1.41 a kilo, sold as 6 x 400g trays.

Growth moves the goalposts every few weeks, so read the amount off the guide on the box for your pup's current weight rather than settling on a number and staying there.