Seven Pet Seven Puppy Tins: Turkey & Salmon review

Wet puppy food sets a high bar, since the typical example belongs in our Excellent band, higher than the dry side has to clear. This tin lands a step behind that mark in our Good band, carried there by a named meat share and an analysis that backs it up. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding here and transparency Excellent, with protein and processing and value both Good.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Meat-by-products (50% Turkey), Fish and fish-by-products (15% Salmon), Vegetable (2% Sweet Potato), Fruits (1% Coconut), Minerals (1%), Oil and Fat (0.15% Salmon Oil) Eggs and egg-by-products (0.1% Eggshell-Powder).

The label uses the legal category headings a wet food is entitled to use, then names what sits inside each of them. Turkey at 50% goes under meat, salmon at 15% under fish, sweet potato at 2% under vegetable, coconut at 1% under fruit and eggshell powder at 0.1% under eggs. That is a good deal more detail than the headings alone would give you, though it does leave the remainder of each category unnamed.

What the analysis shows is a food built on animal ingredients. Protein converts to 45.7% of dry matter and fat to 26.1%, both strong figures for a tin. The carbohydrate estimate comes out at 13.0% of dry matter against the 13.6% typical of a wet puppy food. Nothing is padding out the middle of this recipe.

Sweet potato and coconut are present in small quantities. Coconut is an unusual sight in a puppy tin and brings a fat the body puts to work quickly, while sweet potato adds a little digestible starch and fibre. Neither is doing much of the actual feeding.

The marine omega 3 from the salmon is topped up by salmon oil at 0.15%, and a growing coat and nervous system draw on it. Eggshell powder at 0.1% is a natural mineral inclusion and a recognised calcium source. The label puts no figure beside it, though, so a big pup's rearing plan wants that number from another source.

Minerals are declared at 1% of the recipe, and the panel behind them lists zinc at 25 mg, copper at 1.5 mg, manganese at 1.4 mg and iodine at 0.75 mg per kilo. Vitamins are where this label goes quiet, with none printed alongside.

Energy is our estimate at 98 kcal per 100g rather than a declaration, close to the 106 typical of a wet puppy food. Ash converts to 13.0% of dry matter, the mineral share a growing dog draws on, and fibre is minimal at 2.2%, which most puppy digestion handles without a thought.

£6.23 a kilo, sold in packs of six 400g tins.

Wet food fills a bowl in far bigger portions than kibble does. Let the growth chart and the shape of your pup set the amount, not the tin.