Bella + Duke Puppy Complete | Premium: Sustainable Salmon review

All seven tubs land in our Outstanding band, and so does the typical raw puppy food, which says a fair amount about the company they keep. Growth recipes are judged on more than a headline meat figure. What earns the band here is the itemised animal share, a named bone percentage in every tub and a trace element panel printed in full. Each of the seven reads Outstanding on protein and processing, on nutritional balance, on transparency and on value.

Ingredients, as declared: Sustainable Salmon (MSC) 33% (salmon meat 31%, salmon bone 2%), grass-fed beef 30% (beef tripe 15%, beef kidney 5%, beef liver 5%, beef trachea 5%), higher-welfare turkey 22% (turkey meat 21%, turkey bone 1%), sustainable seasonal vegetables 12% (carrots 2.4%, sprouts 2.4%, broccoli 2.4%, cauliflower 2.4%, cabbage 2.4%), blueberries 1%, sustainable hand harvested organic Scottish kelp 1%, psyllium husk 0.4%, pure olive oil 0.2%, dried algae (Schizochytrium sp.) 0.1%, beet pulp 0.04%, minerals 0.04%.

The construction is 85% animal and 12% vegetables, with the meat side broken into muscle, tripe, organs, trachea and bone, each with its own percentage. Every recipe pairs at least two animals, which is a sensible way to build a growth diet, since a wider set of animals covers more ground than any single one can.

Bone is named in every tub, running from 1% to 3%, and in a raw recipe of this kind that bone is the calcium source. Only the salmon prints a calcium figure, at 1.24% of dry matter, which sits inside the range large breed growth guidance looks for. On the other six the calcium is there in the bone but not on the panel, so a large breed owner is the one who will want to ask.

Vegetables are 12%, five equal 2.4% shares given to carrots, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. On top of that sit blueberries at 1% and Scottish kelp at 1%, the kelp there for iodine and trace minerals. Olive oil at 0.2% and dried algae at 0.1% close the list, the algae there for omega 3, which is the usual reason a growth recipe carries an oil at all.

The additive panel is printed per kilo. Vitamin D3 is 400IU in most tubs and 350IU in the turkey and chicken, with none on the fish and salmon, which lean on the fish itself. Vitamin E runs at 30mg, and 40mg in those same two. Then come iron at 5mg, zinc at 25mg, manganese at 25mg or 35mg, and copper between 0.75mg and 1.25mg. All of them are chelates of protein hydrolysates.

The analyses read young and lean rather than heavy. Protein converts to between 51.0% and 62.7% of dry matter and fat to between 21.3% and 39.1%. The carbohydrate estimate stays between 4.7% and 6.6%, a little above the 3.2% a raw puppy food usually shows, and the vegetables and blueberries account for that. Energy runs from 99 to 151 kcal per 100g, under the 155 kcal typical of the category, so bowls are generous.

Salmon leads at 33%, MSC certified, with beef at 30% and higher-welfare turkey at 22%. Psyllium husk at 0.4% brings soluble fibre. Calcium is declared here at 1.24% of dry matter, and no other tub in the range prints one. It feeds at 124 kcal per 100g with protein at 57.5% of dry matter.

£7.00 a kilo. Tubs are 500g, and subscription boxes come in 4kg, 8kg, 12kg, 16kg and 20kg.

A single daily figure would not serve a puppy well here, since energy needs shift week by week as the dog grows. The label's own feeding guide, revisited as your puppy fills out, is the better starting point.