Applaws Puppy All Breeds: Chicken review

This recipe makes our Excellent band, one step above the Good band where the typical puppy dry food sits. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding with protein and processing Good behind them, so nothing here is being propped up by a single strength.

A meat-first list and a genuinely rich analysis account for the placing. What holds it back from climbing further is not the recipe but the protein and processing reading behind it, and the notes below set out exactly where that comes from.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 54% (Chicken Meal 28%, Freshly Prepared Chicken* 26%), Pea Starch*, Poultry Fat, Pea Protein, Potato, Poultry Gravy*, Dried Egg Powder*, Dried Brewer's Yeast*, Vitamins & Minerals, Salmon Oil, Dried Beet Pulp*, Vegetable Fibres*, Dried Chicory* 0.35% (a Source of Prebiotic FOS), Dried Seaweed*, Lucerne Meal*, Yeast Wall (a source of Beta-Glucans and Prebiotic MOS), Dried Tomato*, Dried Carrot*, Dried Parsley*, Dried Peppermint*, Dried Yucca Schidigera*, Dried Rosehip*, Dried Basil*, Dried Turmeric*, Cranberry Powder*, Dried Carob*, Dried Ginger*, Dried Dandelion Root*, Inactivated Lactobacillus Helveticus 0.005%, Inactivated Lacticaseibacillus Paracasei 0.005%, Dried Paprika*. *Natural Ingredients.

Chicken at 54% is declared in both its forms, chicken meal at 28% and freshly prepared chicken at 26%. That distinction is worth decoding. Fresh chicken is mostly water and gives a lot of it up during cooking, while meal is already dry, so the meal half contributes more of the finished kibble than the split implies. Declared protein of 38.0% is high for a growth food and converts to 41.3% of dry matter.

Pea starch, pea protein and potato make up the plant structure, with no cereal on the list. Pea protein is worth a note when you read that protein figure, because it is a plant protein and does not carry the same amino acid usefulness as the chicken above it. The starch load stays low all the same, with carbohydrate estimated at 25.6% of dry matter where the typical puppy dry food runs 39.0%.

Two entries need reading carefully if allergies are the reason you are here. Poultry fat and poultry gravy both name a category, not a bird. Chicken is clearly the meat of the recipe, but the label does not confirm that nothing else fowl is in the bag. Salmon oil adds marine omega 3 fats for coat and brain development, and it also means fish belongs on this food's allergen picture.

The gut support is thoughtfully assembled. Dried chicory at 0.35% is named as the FOS source, a yeast wall supplies beta-glucans and MOS, and two inactivated cultures are declared at 0.005% each. Dried brewer's yeast brings B vitamins, while beet pulp and vegetable fibres keep crude fibre gentle at 2.0%, which suits a puppy gut.

A long tail of dried tomato, carrot, parsley, peppermint, yucca, rosehip, basil, turmeric, cranberry, carob, ginger, dandelion root and paprika closes the recipe. Read it as seasoning and provenance rather than nutrition, because the meat and the fats are what this food is really made of. Seaweed and lucerne meal sit in the same part of the list.

The declared analysis is where the label leaves the most on the table. Protein at 38.0%, fat at 20.0%, fibre at 2.0% and ash at 8.5% are printed, then it stops. There is no moisture figure, so the dry matter conversions above use the 8% assumption standard for a kibble. There is no calcium figure either, and that is the one an owner of a big pup most needs from a bag sold for all breeds. Energy of 409 kcal per 100g is the maker's own declaration, and the separate technological panel names sepiolite at 5000 mg as an anti-caking agent with tocopherol extracts as the antioxidant.

Sold in 4kg and 12kg bags.

The amount a puppy needs rises with age and with the adult size they are heading for, so no single number holds for long. Our standard energy estimate puts a 10kg pup aged 4 to 12 months at somewhere near 173 to 212 grams a day. Weigh it out, then adjust to how your pup is filling out week by week.