Skinner's Get Out & Go Wet Foods Flying Start Puppy review

Our Outstanding band takes this pack in, one rung higher than the middle of the wet puppy field. Clearing an average that strong is the achievement here, and it was never a soft one. It finishes a comfortable way past that midpoint.

Protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Outstanding, and the recipe earns them the honest way. The meat share is high, the plant list names and weighs itself down to the last few grams, and the energy figure is declared instead of estimated.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 71%, Carrot, Egg powder, Green beans 3%, Spinach 0.75%, Apple, Blueberry 0.15%, Linseed oil, Yeast products (as a source of nucleotides prebiotic MOS and beta-glucans) 0.154%, Algae oil, Seaweed, Chicory root extract (as a source of prebiotic FOS) 0.032%, Chicory root powder, Alfalfa, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Extract of yucca schidigera, Dried fennel 0.0075%, Dried ginger, Turmeric powder 0.005%

At 71% of the recipe, chicken is also the only meat on the list. The numbers agree: protein converts to 35.5% of dry matter and fat to 29.0%. Those are meat shaped figures. Chicken is the most widely used meat in dog food because it is digestible and reliably popular. That same ubiquity is why chicken sensitivity turns up more often than any other.

The plant side is short and specific. Carrot leads it, then green beans at 3%, spinach at 0.75%, apple and blueberry at 0.15%, with alfalfa further down. Carbohydrate comes out at an estimated 6.0% as fed, or 19.3% of dry matter, above the 13.6% typical of a wet puppy food, so the vegetables are contributing more than decoration here. Carrots bring vitamin A, and soluble fibre and antioxidants come with it.

Egg powder gives a second animal protein with a complete spread of amino acids, and it is the reason a chicken only recipe still carries two animal sources when read for an elimination trial. Linseed oil and algae oil handle the fats between them, plant omega 3 from one and the marine kind from the other. That covers a growing brain and coat without putting fish into the bowl.

The prebiotic and functional tail is where the label gets talkative. Yeast products at 0.154% are declared as a source of nucleotides, MOS and beta-glucans. A chicory root extract at 0.032% is declared as a source of FOS, with chicory root powder behind it. MOS and FOS both work by encouraging the friendly bacteria of the large intestine, and chicory root is the natural home of the inulin that FOS comes from. Seaweed adds a broad mineral spread including iodine, in the small quantity that ingredient calls for.

Glucosamine and chondroitin close out the joint side without carrying quantities, and the botanicals behind them are declared right down to dried fennel at 0.0075% and turmeric powder at 0.005%. Those last entries are seasoning by weight, and the label is transparent enough to let you work that out for yourself. Yucca schidigera extract and dried ginger sit in the same bracket.

The added panel is printed with its amounts: vitamin A at 3000iu and vitamin D3 at 250iu per kilogram, with zinc at 25mg, iron at 12mg, copper at 2.5mg and manganese at 2mg. Ash is declared at 3.0%, converting to 9.7% of dry matter, so the mineral load is present without being heavy. Calcium is what the label does not give. Large breed owners want that figure most on a growth food. Ask Skinner's for it directly.

£3.59 a kilo, sold in 390g packs.

The pack prints its guide by bodyweight, and a growing dog climbs that guide through the fastest months and then comes back down it again. Let the growth chart and your puppy's outline set the amount, not the number you settled on in the first few weeks.