Specific CPW Puppy all breeds review

The middle of the wet puppy field sits in our Excellent band, and it is a strong field. This recipe finishes in our Good band, a step behind that mark, and disclosure is the reason. No ingredient carries a percentage and ash is left off the panel, so a good deal is asked on trust. Protein and processing reads Excellent, with transparency and value both Good.

What the food does well is not in doubt. Pork leads the list, the energy density is genuinely useful for a small stomach, and the supplement work behind the label is careful. A handful of printed percentages would move it up.

Ingredients, as declared: Pork, maize, egg powder, sunflower oil, rice, minerals, cellulose powder, fish oil, vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), psyllium husk, yeast (source of ß-1.3/1.6-glucans).

Pork leads the recipe, and that is the most interesting thing about this tray. It is highly appealing to dogs and easily digested. Relatively few dog foods use it, so plenty of pups arrive at it having never met it before. That is exactly what a novel protein should be when you are working out what agrees with your dog.

Maize sits second with rice further down, so the starch here comes from cereal rather than from roots or legumes. Neither the meat nor the cereal carries a percentage, which leaves the declared 13.0% protein and 8.2% fat as the only measure of how the recipe is balanced.

Moisture is declared at 67%, noticeably drier than the usual wet food, and that is why the energy figure comes out at 150 kcal per 100g against the 106 typical for a puppy wet food. A pup takes more nutrition from a smaller serving, which suits a little stomach and a large appetite equally well.

Egg powder adds protein of about the highest quality there is. Sunflower oil brings vitamin E along with its fats. The marine omega 3 comes from fish oil, and a growing brain and coat make good use of it. The yeast is on the list for its beta glucans. Some of the trace elements come in chelated form, a version that is easier to absorb.

Cellulose powder and psyllium husk share the fibre work between them. Psyllium is the softer of the two, a soluble fibre that steadies digestion. Cellulose is purified plant fibre and mostly adds bulk, without bringing calories with it. The job it is there for gets done, though it is a plainer ingredient than the company it keeps.

The gaps sit on the analysis rather than in the recipe. Ash is not declared, so this panel cannot be put on a dry matter basis and set against other foods. Calcium is absent too, and that gap will matter most to anyone raising a large breed puppy. Protein at 13.0%, fat at 8.2% and fibre at 1.1% are printed as fed with moisture at 67.0%.

£8.53 a kilo, sold as a 6 x 300g pack.

Portions for a growing dog do not settle on one number. Match the tray count to the chart on the pack and to your pup's expected adult size, and check every few weeks as they change shape. The published guide runs from 80g a day up to 890g.