Last Updated: 30/07/2025
Give your puppy the best start with the right wet food. Our Vet Squad has selected the top options, packed with high-quality protein and essential nutrients for healthy growth and development. Discover delicious, hydrating, and complete meals to nourish your new companion.
Author: Dr Gillian Hill BVSc (Hons)
Reading Time: 9 minutes - short read
Embarking on the journey of puppy parenthood is an exciting and rewarding experience. Those adorable, furry bundles of joy demand not only your time and affection but also the very best nutrition to support their growth and development. When it comes to nurturing your new canine companion, choosing the right food is paramount. Wet puppy food, with its rich and enticing textures, can be an excellent choice, offering an enjoyable culinary experience for your furry friend while delivering the essential nutrients they need.
Feeding puppies wet food, either alone, or in combination with dry food, has a number of benefits. Wet food offers hydration, as it contains higher moisture content, which is particularly essential during a puppy's early stages. It's also highly palatable, helping to entice even the fussiest eaters. A combination of wet and dry food can be a smart and balanced approach to your pup's nutrition. This mix of both textures provides a well-rounded diet that caters to various aspects of a growing puppy's needs. Dry kibble helps promote dental health by encouraging chewing and can be more convenient, especially for busy pet parents. Combining both forms allows you to strike a balance between taste, hydration, and dental care. When doing so, it's crucial to adjust portion sizes and monitor your puppy's weight to ensure they're getting the right amount of nutrients. Consulting your veterinarian or our very own Vet Squad can help tailor this dual feeding approach to your puppy's specific breed, age, and individual dietary requirements, setting them up for a healthy and happy life.
Let's dive in and discover the best wet puppy food to kickstart your puppy's lifelong journey towards wellness and vitality.
Four factors to consider when choosing a wet food for your puppy:
Our Vet team use their health and husbandry knowledge, along with their own personal and clinical experiences to evaluate each product and provide detailed, informative reviews, free of any commercial bias. We then collate this information into our 'best of' recommendations.
When choosing wet puppy food for your furry friend, it's important to consider their specific nutritional needs, as puppies have different requirements than adult dogs. Here are some key factors to look for when selecting wet puppy food.
Puppies require more protein than adult dogs to support their rapid growth and development. Look for wet puppy food that lists a high-quality source of animal protein (such as chicken, turkey, beef, or fish) as the first ingredient.
Check the food label to ensure that the food meets the requirements for the growth stage of dogs. For complete and balanced foods, there will be a statement confirming that the food meets the AAFCO or FEDIAF requirements for balanced nutrition.
Puppies require healthy fats for brain development and overall growth. Look for foods that contain sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, such as fish oil or flaxseed.
Premium brand foods are designed to be highly digestible (which means smaller, firmer stools) and do not change ingredients batch to batch like grocery type brands, which means less tummy upsets. They also tend to contain higher levels of added beneficial nutrients, such as omega fatty acids for joint and skin health, and are backed by testing to ensure they deliver the results they promise. Feeding a premium food is one simple way you can support your pup's health on a daily basis.
Puppies need to eat more frequently than adult dogs, after all they only have tiny little stomachs! Up until the age of about 5 to 6 months it is recommended to split your puppy's daily feeding amount into 3 separate meals. Also ensure that your puppy always have fresh water available. Don't hesitate to contact our Vet Squad, who are available 7 days a week, if you have any questions about your pup's needs.
Want to read more? Check out our other articles:
Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space and we update our articles when new information becomes available.
Veterinarian
Dr. Gillian loves being able to provide depth and detail to pet parents questions, and give up to date, evidence based advice. She loves the variety of pets and inquiries she receives - she especially loves the 'curly' questions that require some research! Seeing the gorgeous photos that pet parents send through of their babies is a highlight of the day! Gillian enjoys to further her veterinary knowledge, and has completed further training in ultrasonography, behaviour and backyard poultry!
Royal Canin have formulated a range of puppy wet foods to compliment their puppy dry foods, and support optimal hydration and urinary tract health while providing variety in your pup's diet.
These wet foods are available in single serve pouches, making them practical to feed (hooray for no open cans of dog food in the fridge!) and easy to calculate suitable feeding amounts if feeding both wet and dry foods.
Royal Canin invests heavily into their scientific research to ensure that their foods meet their stringent quality expectations, and deliver the results they promise. This, as well as the individual serving sizes of the products, mean that the Royal Canin wet puppy foods are among the more expensive options for pups.
What our customers say:"After several trials of other products, this is the one that my 8 month old Westie loves and I love the fact that PetCircle delivers to my door, so weare both extremely happy at my place."
What our vets say: "Royal Canin places a strong emphasis on precise nutrient profiles to meet the nutritional needs of puppies during their crucial growth stages. Their formulas contain high-quality protein sources, balanced fats, and essential vitamins and minerals. Whether you have a small, medium, or large breed puppy, Royal Canin has specialised formulas to address their size-specific requirements. This helps support healthy growth and development for your specific pup." - Dr. Belinda
We do realise that 'most afforable' means different things to different people depending on financial circumstances. When choosing a winner for the 'most afforable' wet puppy food, we still chose from premium quality diets because we know these are the most beneficial to your dog's daily health. Even when looking to cut costs, you still want to look for high quality, easily digestible diets to support your dog's health.
For these reasons, Advance puppy foods, being available in bulk 700g cans, offer the most affordable premium option in our eyes.
Being Australian made, you can rest assured that you're supporting the local industry with the food you feed your pup. Advance packs the quality of the big name brands and often at a reduced price.
For more information about affordable dog foods, take a read through our Best Affordable Dog Food Guide and The Real Cost of Supermarket Food.
What our customers say: "My 8 week old puppy loves this food; I mix it with the Advance dry food and he scoffs it down. Lucky I bought the puppy pack which came with a slow-eating bowl, so that has slowed him down."
"My puppy absolutely loves this food! He's pretty picky with his canned food but this one he just devours!"
"Its a product that I already buy for my dog but in a different form. Dog loves it so will continue to buy. Better price in the can. Will definitely recommend."
With no grains or potato in any of their stews, Open Farm offers a range of flavour options to suit any puppy. The Open Farm Rustic Stews are suitable for all life stages also, meaning that you can continue to feed them even after your puppy has moved into adulthood.
Every Open Farm product is proudly produced with a focus on transparent sourcing and traceability, humane production animal welfare standards, ethically sourced ingredients, and sustainable fishing practices in line with Ocean Wise Standards. For an environmentally friendly, grain-free food, you can't go past this one.
Alongside their environmentally friendly values, Open Farm foods are made with the most premium proteins and superfoods, providing the highest quality ingredients for your dog.
What our customers say: "As soon as the bowls hit the ground my dogs are chowing down on this stew. I serve my dogs a mix of the stew with the grain free kibbles and their bowls are clean in just minutes!"
What our vets say:"Open Farm is committed to using high-quality, ethically sourced ingredients. Their Rustic Stews feature humanely raised real meat as the first ingredient, ensuring that your puppy receives essential amino acids for muscle development. Open Farm also place a strong emphasis on transparency in their sourcing practices. They provide information about the farms and sources of their ingredients, so you can feel confident about the quality and sustainability of the food you're feeding your puppy." - Dr. Josepha
Every K9 Natural product is proudly produced with a focus on ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients. The parent company of K9 Natural, Natural Pet Food Group, is the first New Zealand member and the first New Zealand company accredited with the Pet Sustainability Coalition - a global community of pet companies dedicated to creating a more sustainable pet industry.
All the K9 Natural canned foods are complete and balanced and nutrient dense with a high meat content, and made with New Zealand water for added hydration. The K9 Natural cans are free from all gelling agents, fillers, grains and preservatives, and the cans are BPA-free. They are available in a range of protein options to suit different preferences.
While they are one of the more expensive options, you do 'get what you pay for' with the K9 Natural foods, with very high quality, nutrient dense ingredients and recipes.
What our customers say: "My golden retriever loves k9 natural. We use this (and their other canned meat varieties) for her breaky and dinner. I mix in fresh veg/fruit and someoats or rice. Since transitioning her to this diet (from a previously kibble diet then exclusively raw barf diet) she has never looked better. Happy and healthy and her coat feels amazing. This and ziwipeak canned meat are the only brands i'll ever buy. Complete and balanced, cannot go wrong."
What our vets say: "K9 Natural takes pride in using very high quality, natural ingredients, and their canned food is no exception. The high meat content in K9 Natural foods provides your growing pup with the protein they need to support muscle development and overall vitality. K9 Natural also offers a variety of protein sources, allowing you to choose a formula that aligns with your puppy's taste preferences or any specific dietary considerations." - Dr. Brittany
