Symply Puppy Fuel Trays review

Symply Puppy Fuel lands in our Excellent band, which is also where the typical example in a strong wet puppy field finishes. Holding the typical mark in a field this strong says the meat share, the itemised label and the declared analysis are all pulling in the same direction. Three of its four pillars read Outstanding, and value reads Excellent, the band the tray takes overall.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (67%), Turkey Liver (5%), Brown Rice (4%), Peas (3%), Carrots (1%), Minerals, Salmon Oil (0.5%), Seaweed (0.12%), Prebiotic - Fructooligosaccharide, Yucca Extract.

Turkey at 67% carries this recipe and turkey liver adds another 5% behind it, which puts muscle meat and organ meat into the same tray. For vitamin A, copper and the B vitamins, very little a dog eats is denser than liver. A measured 5% of it does more for a growing pup than a long run of botanicals ever would.

Because turkey is the only animal meat on the list, the analysis reads the way a meat led food should: protein converts to 48.1% of dry matter and fat to 24.1%. The meat builds this bowl, not a starch. Carbohydrate is estimated at 14.8% of dry matter, close to the 13.6% typical of a puppy wet food, so nothing starchy hides behind the headline.

The plant side is deliberately slight. Brown rice at 4% leads it, then peas at 3% and carrots at 1%. The rice brings gentle digestible energy and the carrots a little soluble fibre and natural vitamin A. Fibre converts to just 1.9% of dry matter, which most young digestions handle without a second thought.

Salmon oil at 0.5% supplies the long chain omega 3 fats a puppy uses for brain and eye development. Fish turns up on the allergen picture because of it, even with turkey the only meat. Seaweed at 0.12% brings iodine and a spread of trace minerals, fructooligosaccharide is a prebiotic feeding the useful gut bacteria, and yucca extract sits at the end as a digestive and odour aid.

Where the label runs short is the mineral detail. Ash converts to 11.1% of dry matter, so the minerals are generous. No calcium figure is printed, though, and that is the number an owner of a big breed puppy wants most. The label declares no energy, so the 115 kcal per 100g here is ours. None of that takes anything away from the ingredients themselves, and it is the part of this label with the most room to improve.

Single 395g trays and 7 x 395g packs, at £7.57 a kilo.

As a guide from our own energy estimate, a 10kg pup between 4 and 12 months of age works through somewhere around 617 to 754 grams a day. Growth rewrites that figure every few weeks. Take the amount from the growth chart and from your pup's own shape rather than fixing on a single number.