Wainwright's Puppy Pouches: Tuna & Brown Rice review

Wet puppy food is a demanding class to be judged in. Meat leads most wet recipes by default, which lifts the whole field, and the midpoint of it sits in our Excellent band. These pouches come in one band below that midpoint, in our Good band, which reads harsher than it deserves: they are being measured against the strongest company on the shelf.

The label shows you the reasons plainly. Brown rice at 10% carries more carbohydrate than the wet average, and the analysis is printed without being broken down as far as calcium. Value reads Good, while transparency reads Outstanding on all three, nutritional balance Excellent or better and protein and processing steady in our Good band. This is a straightforward pouch doing a straightforward job well.

Ingredients, as declared: Tuna (47%), Cooked Wholegrain Brown Rice (10%), Dried Peas (4%), Carrots (4%), Sunflower Oil (1.7%), Minerals, Olive Oil (0.2%), Seaweed Extract, Chicory Extract (as a source of Prebiotic Fructo-oligosaccharides) (0.1%), Yucca Extract (0.05%), Blueberry Powder, Cranberry Extract, Pomegranate Extract

A single named animal at 47% leads each pouch. That is a solid share in a wet food, and it is why protein converts as strongly as it does once the water is taken back out. The exact figures move by variety, and the variety notes carry them one by one.

The largest plant entry is cooked wholegrain brown rice at 10%. Wholegrain rice is gentle, widely tolerated and easy on a young digestion, and it is also the reason these recipes are not grain free and why carbohydrate sits above the wet average. Dried peas and carrots at 4% each follow it, both proper vegetables rather than refined fractions.

A small measure of olive oil runs through every recipe, with sunflower oil joining it in two of the three. Olive oil is a genuinely good inclusion for a coat and for antioxidants, and the shares are given variety by variety below.

The tail is trace level support. Seaweed extract brings natural minerals and iodine, chicory extract at 0.1% is named for the prebiotic FOS. Yucca extract at 0.05% comes next. Blueberry powder closes it with cranberry and pomegranate extracts. Read those last three as a light antioxidant touch. The meat is what the recipe stands on.

Minerals are declared as a group and the analysis prints protein, fat, fibre, ash and moisture without ever breaking calcium out. That gap is worth naming on a growth food, above all when a pup will end up large. A big-breed feeding plan needs a calcium number behind it, and this label does not print one.

The added vitamin and trace element panel is dosed in print on every pouch, though it is not identical across the three, and the variety notes pick up where it differs.

Tuna & Brown Rice is the outlier, and in the most interesting way. Tuna at 47% pushes protein to 13.5% as fed, which is 55.1% of dry matter, far ahead of the other two, while fat drops to 3.5%, or 14.3% of dry matter. That makes this the leanest pouch of the range and the one with the most protein behind it. Moisture is declared at 75.5% and carbohydrate is estimated at 5.2% as fed, or 21.2% of dry matter.

The oils are the other way round here, with sunflower oil at 1.7% ahead of olive oil at 0.2%. Energy is estimated at 95 kcal per 100g, the lightest of the three, so portions run a little larger. This is the only pouch in the range built on fish, worth knowing before you choose it if your pup steers clear of fish. Its printed panel names vitamins A and E, where the other two also list D3.

£6.60 a kilo for the chicken and the lamb, sold as single 150g pouches, and £6.08 a kilo for the tuna, which comes as a box of sixteen 150g pouches.

A puppy has no fixed daily amount to quote, because the right portion tracks age and the adult size your pup is growing towards. Wet food is also fed in bigger volumes than kibble. Start with the pouch chart, then set the final number by how your pup's waistline looks. The chart begins at 75g a day for the smallest and opens out to 2400g a day.