Wildways Puppy Wet: Duck with Chicken 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 Duck (48%), Chicken (18%), Blackberries (4%), Pea Flour( 3%), Hydrolysed Animal Protein (2%), Lignocellulose (1%), Salmon Oil (0.5%), Calcium Carbonate (0.3%), Dried Rosemary (0.01%)

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 duck tray is the leanest of the three on fat. Fresh duck at 48% leads with chicken at 18% behind it, and blackberries at 4% and pea flour at 3% follow. Hydrolysed animal protein at 2% is the entry that names no species, which matters if this tray is being used inside an exclusion trial. Lignocellulose at 1% and salmon oil at 0.5% finish the working part of the list.

Protein reads 9.5% and fat 4.0% against 78.0% declared moisture, converting to 43.2% protein, the highest in the range, and 18.2% fat, the lowest. Carbohydrate is estimated at 25.4% of dry matter, well clear of the other two and above the 13.6% typical of a wet puppy food. Calcium converts to 0.91% of dry matter, the most modest figure of the three and at the lower end of what a growing pup draws on. With a fast growing big breed pup, that is worth a word with the vet. The added panel is the shortest here too, running to vitamin D3, vitamin E and biotin.

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.