Wildways Puppy Wet: Beef with Venison review

All three trays finish in our Excellent band, and so does the typical wet puppy food, so this range keeps steady company with the better half of a strong category. Nutritional balance and transparency read Outstanding across all three, with protein and processing Excellent on the turkey and the beef and Good on the duck. The steadiness runs through the whole range, with no single tray carrying the others.

The reasons repeat across the three. Each tray puts a fresh named meat at the head of its list. The starch side stays with pea flour and a little fruit. The analysis is declared with the moisture printed, so the dry matter figures rest on the maker's own numbers and not on an assumption of ours.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (33%), Fresh Beef (26%), Venison (4%), Broth, Pumpkin (4%), Apple (3%), Camelina (2%), Pea Flour, Derivatives Of Vegetable Origin (1.4%), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.5%), Inulin (source of Fructo-oligosaccharides 0.5%), Kale (0.5%), Thyme (0.3 %).

Every recipe here opens the same way. A fresh named animal comes first, then a second named meat behind it. That is a simple thing to check on a tray, and it means an owner always knows which animals are in the bowl even though the pairings change from recipe to recipe.

Pea flour is the binder across the range, used in small amounts rather than as a structural ingredient. In that role it is a decent enough thing, bringing iron, calcium and fibre with it, though it is a plant protein and no substitute for meat, which is exactly how these recipes treat it.

The analysis is declared in full on all three, moisture included, so the dry matter figures come from the maker's own numbers. Protein runs between 35.8% and 43.2% of dry matter across the range, fat between 18.2% and 32.3%, and carbohydrate between an estimated 7.3% and 25.4%. A wet puppy food typically carries 13.6%.

Calcium is printed on every recipe, which is unusual and genuinely useful on a growth food. The three figures are a long way apart though, running from 0.91% of dry matter at the lowest to 2.37% at the highest. The tray you pick shifts the mineral picture well beyond what the flavour on the front suggests. The variety notes below give the figure for each.

The added panels are dosed in print on all three and lean on the basics. Vitamin D3, vitamin E and biotin appear on every one, and the fuller recipes add vitamin A, vitamin B1 and taurine. Beyond that the tails differ, and the variety notes set out what each tray brings.

The beef with venison tray asks you to read its list, not its name. Fresh chicken is the biggest entry at 33%, ahead of fresh beef at 26% and venison at 4%, so a household avoiding chicken should know that before buying. Pumpkin at 4%, apple at 3% and camelina at 2% give this recipe more plant material than its stablemates, and derivatives of vegetable origin at 1.4% is the one broad heading in the range. Mannan oligosaccharides and inulin at 0.5% each look after the gut, with kale and thyme closing the list.

Protein reads 8.3% and fat 7.5% against 76.8% declared moisture, converting to 35.8% and 32.3% of dry matter. Fibre is much the highest of the three at 13.4% of dry matter, one to note for a pup with a delicate stomach. Energy sits at 99 kcal per 100g. Calcium converts to 2.37% of dry matter, above what large breed growth plans normally work to. If your pup will finish big, have that checked against the feeding plan.

The turkey recipe and the duck recipe both work out at £7.48 a kilo in 400g trays, and the beef with venison at £9.97 a kilo in a 300g tray.

Wet food is fed by volume, and a puppy's volume climbs quickly before it levels off. Start from the chart on the tray and let your pup's condition do the correcting.