Terra Canis Puppy Wet Food: Beef with apple, carrot and rose hip review

These four cans score alike, which fits a range this consistent in style. Every one of them reaches our Outstanding band, so rotating through the range means staying put rather than moving between bands.

The typical wet puppy food reaches our Excellent band, a strong category to be measured against, and all four cans clear it. Protein and processing reads Outstanding on the antelope and the beef and Excellent on the chicken and the lamb. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding on all but the lamb, and transparency Outstanding on everything except the antelope, which reads Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: Beef Heart Muscle Meat (30%), Beef Lung (14%), Zucchini, Carrot (11%), Beef Liver (7%), Millet, Beef Muscle Meat (5%), Apple (4%), Linseed Oil, Pumpkin Seed Flour (1% ), Oyster Shell, Brewer's Yeast, Cranberry, Basil, Parsley, Silica, Rose Hip Powder (0.2%), Mineral Clay, Andean Salt, Flower Pollen, Seaweed, Minerals.

The defining choice here is offal. These recipes put heart, lung, liver and stomach ahead of muscle meat. That is nearer to what a dog would actually eat off a carcass than a fillet is. Few foods pack in more than liver: vitamin B12 and vitamin A in quantity, with copper and selenium alongside. Heart is a working muscle with the amino acid profile to match. Muscle meat then appears in its own right in each recipe, so the animal share is a genuine mix of cuts.

The produce is not a garnish either. Carrot, courgette, pumpkin, apple, pear, cranberry and rose hip all appear at percentages you can see. The plant side of these cans runs from roughly 12.8% to 21.1% of the tin. Carrot brings soluble fibre and natural vitamin A. Cranberry and rose hip bring antioxidants, and chamomile at 0.2% in two of the recipes is a traditional settler for a young stomach.

That produce does show up in the carbohydrate estimate. Across the range it converts to between 18.8% and 29.0% of dry matter against the 13.6% typical of a puppy wet food. These cans carry more plant matter than a meat and jelly recipe would. Real food is doing that work here, not a refined starch, but it is worth knowing if you are counting a pup's carbohydrate intake.

Minerals come from an unusually natural set of sources. Calcium arrives as oyster shell. Seaweed carries iodine and trace minerals. Silica and mineral clay sit alongside, and brewer's yeast supplies B vitamins with flower pollen closing several of the lists. The declared additive panel is short. Vitamin A comes in at 800 IU and vitamin D3 at 340 IU, with zinc at 20mg, iron at 30mg, copper at 2mg, manganese and iodine at 0.8mg each per kilo. What is not printed is a calcium figure, which is the frustration here: the source is right there on the label but the number a big pup's owner needs is not.

Energy is an estimate here, not a declared figure, and it moves a lot between recipes, from 72 kcal per 100g up to 120 kcal per 100g against the 106 typical of the category. That spread is the practical consequence of the different fat levels, and it is why the same scoop is not the same meal across two cans of this range.

This is the richest can of the four. Beef heart at 30%, beef lung at 14%, beef liver at 7% and beef muscle meat at 5% make up the animal share, millet carries the starch and linseed oil supplies the plant omega 3. Apple at 4% and rose hip powder finish it. Fat converts to 26.8% of dry matter and the energy estimate of 120 kcal per 100g is the highest in the range. Portions of this one run smaller than the same measure of the antelope.

Sold in 200g, 400g and 800g cans across all four recipes.

A puppy's daily amount keeps moving. Set it from the growth chart, the age your pup has reached and how easily you can feel their ribs, then look at it again every couple of weeks. The can sizes make that easier than most, since you can change the amount without changing the routine.