Wilsons Puppy Fresh Food: Tasty Turkey review

Both recipes reach our Outstanding band, with protein and processing, transparency and value all reading Outstanding on each, and nutritional balance Good on the chicken and fish and Excellent on the turkey. The typical fresh puppy food already stands in that same top band, so these two keep very good company in a strong field. Let protein rather than rank pick between them: one leans on chicken with cod behind it, the other builds on turkey with salmon oil for its omega 3.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey thigh meat (49%),turkey heart(10%), turkey liver(10%), sweet potato (11.8%), carrot (7%), peas (5%), quinoa (2%), salmon oil (2%), minerals(1.7%), egg shells (0.7%), seaweed (0.48%), chicory(0.16%), DL-methionine (0.025%), mannan-oligosaccharides (0.025%), inulin(0.025%), glucosamine(0.02%), chondroitin sulphate (0.015%), yuccaschidigera (0.012%), natural antioxidant-rosemary and tocopherol extracts (0.012%), selenium yeast (0.01%), thyme (0.005%), carnitine (0.0025%), cranberry (0.0025%), dandelion root (0.0025%), marigold yellow (0.0025%), ginger (0.0025%), turmeric (0.0025%).

Both labels lead with meat and then keep going. One recipe puts chicken leg at 29% ahead of heart and liver at 10% each, with cod adding another 16%. The other runs turkey thigh at 49% with the same pair of organs. Organ meat earns its place here. It is where a growing dog picks up a good share of its copper, B12 and vitamin A, and printing the percentage beside it is the part most labels skip.

Gently cooked food carries its water with it, 57% on the Chicken & Fish and 59% on the Tasty Turkey, so the analysis reads low until you convert it. Do that and protein lands at 30.2% and 36.6% of dry matter, fat at 25.6% and 18.3%, and the estimated carbohydrate at 34.7% and 34.3%. That gives a growing dog plenty to build with and enough fuel to run on.

On a puppy label, calcium is the number that matters most, and neither of these leaves it blank. The Chicken & Fish reads 1.16% of dry matter and the Tasty Turkey 1.41%. Both sit where a large breed puppy putting on frame steadily wants them, which is exactly the reassurance an owner of a big boned youngster tends to be looking for. Egg shell at 1% and 0.7% respectively is the source, with seaweed adding iodine and other trace minerals behind it.

Sweet potato does the starch work on both recipes, with carrot, peas and quinoa filling in around it. Quinoa comes from a seed, not a cereal, and its amino acid profile is fuller than most plants manage. Salmon oil at 2% appears on each label as an omega 3 source, which counts while a nervous system is still developing, and the chicken recipe adds spinach at 2% on top.

The added panel is dosed for growth and not borrowed from an adult food. Zinc sits at 50 mg/kg and iron at 40 mg/kg as amino acid chelates, copper at 4 mg/kg and iodine at 0.75 mg/kg, with vitamins A, D3 and E behind them. Glucosamine at 0.02% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.015% start the joint work early, while chicory, inulin and mannan oligosaccharides give the gut bacteria a hand. That is welcome in a food a puppy is meeting for the first time.

Turkey thigh meat at 49% with turkey heart and liver at 10% each, and no second meat behind them beyond the salmon oil. Protein converts to 36.6% of dry matter on a lighter 18.3% fat, energy comes in at 176 kcal per 100g, and calcium sits at 1.41% of dry matter. The straightforward pick for a puppy that has already shown chicken does not agree with it.

Both recipes are £9.73 a kilo. They come as 380g pouches, boxed in 8, 16 or 32.

There is no one daily figure to quote for a puppy, since the right amount changes every few weeks: a twelve week old and a six month old of the same breed eat very differently. Work from the label's guide for your puppy's weight today and its expected adult size, adjust as the growth chart moves, and let the shape over the ribs settle the argument.