Ruff's Recipes Puppy Trays: Puppy's Turkey Roast 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: Turkey, Duck & Pork (61%) (Turkey 37%, Duck 14%, Pork 10%), Potato (4%), Broccoli (4%), 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 Turkey Roast splits its 61% between turkey at 37%, duck at 14% and pork at 10%. That makes it the more varied of the two, and a useful option for a pup who has already met chicken and lamb. Potato and broccoli at 4% each provide the vegetables. One oddity is worth flagging. The declared crude fibre of 6.0% is far above what a wet food normally carries, and it matches this recipe's fat figure exactly. The carbohydrate estimate that falls out of it should not be set against other foods.

£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.