Ruff's Recipes Puppy Trays: Puppy's Chicken Hotpot review

Both trays land in our Excellent band, and so does the typical puppy wet food, so keeping company at that level takes some doing. These two clear the typical mark, the turkey tray by a comfortable margin.

The turkey tray reads Outstanding for nutritional balance and transparency, and Excellent for both protein and processing and value. The chicken tray reads exactly the same way on all four. The pattern holds either way: the pot's contents are named on the label and the analysis agrees.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken & Lamb (61%) (Chicken 47%, Lamb (14%), Sweet Potato (4%), Dried Spinach (2%, equivalent to 4% Spinach), Minerals, Linseed, Dried Herbs & Botanicals (0.2%) (Seaweed, Nettle, Rosemary, Bay, Dill, Mint, Oregano, Thyme, Chamomile, Turmeric, Reishi Mushroom, Valerian Root), Chicory (a source of Inulin), Dried Blueberry.

Both trays put a named meat block first at 61%, and both break that block out into individual animals, which is the part most wet foods leave vague. It shows in the analysis, where protein converts to 52.6% of dry matter and fat to 31.6%, the profile of a food that is mostly meat once the water is taken away.

The plant side is deliberately small: one vegetable pairing per recipe at 4% apiece, a little linseed, and dried blueberry to finish, with no cereal anywhere. Linseed is the plant route to omega 3, not as potent as a marine oil but a real contributor, and it brings lignans and a little fibre along with it.

Chicory appears on both lists for its inulin, which the gut's useful bacteria feed on. Seaweed and nettle through to reishi mushroom and valerian root all sit in the dried herb and botanical blend, declared at 0.2%. Treat the blend as seasoning with a wellbeing nod; the trays stand on their meat.

Ash converts to 11.6% of dry matter and calcium to 1.58%. Hold on to that second figure. It falls inside the range that any puppy can be reared on, whatever adult size is coming. That is why the maker lists these trays from toy through to giant without hedging.

The additive panel is the thinnest part of the label. Zinc at 15.3 mg, manganese at 3.2 mg, copper at 2.4 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg are given as chelates and simple salts, with no vitamins printed at all. Minerals are on the ingredients list, so the nutrition is being built somewhere. It simply is not spelled out the way the rest of the label is.

Puppy's Chicken Hotpot builds its 61% meat block from chicken at 47% and lamb at 14%, a poultry and red meat pairing rather than a single animal. The only plant bulk in the tray is sweet potato at 4% and dried spinach at 2%, the spinach noted on the label as equivalent to 4% fresh. Carbohydrate is estimated at 2.6% of dry matter where a puppy wet food typically runs at 13.6%, so almost nothing here is doing filler duty.

£9.27 a kilo, sold as single 150g trays.

A growing pup's daily total is a moving number, rising with age until growth slows and then easing back, so count trays against the chart on the pack rather than against habit. The label's own guide spans 150 grams a day for the smallest puppies up to 2550 grams for the largest.