Bounce and Bella Finest Grain-Free Puppy: Steam Cooked Fish With Vegetables review

Both recipes reach our Excellent band, a step above the Good band that holds the middle of the puppy dry field. The fish version edges ahead of the poultry one. Protein and processing reads Good on both recipes, as does nutritional balance, and transparency reads Outstanding on each of them. What earns the position is itemisation: a 60% headline broken into its fresh, dried and stock parts on each label, and supplements given doses rather than just names.

Ingredients, as declared: 60% Salmon, Haddock & Blue Whiting, (21% Freshly Prepared Salmon, 16% Salmon Meal, 11% Freshly Prepared Blue Whiting, 10% Freshly Prepared Haddock & 2% Salmon Stock), Sweet Potato (14%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Peas, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Vitamins & Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Asparagus (0.2%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Nucleotides, FOS (92 mg/kg), MOS (23 mg/kg).

Both recipes put a 60% animal share on the front and then break that share into every component, which is the part that matters. You can see how much arrives fresh, how much arrives dried and how much is stock, set out variety by variety below.

That split is worth understanding, because fresh and dried meat behave very differently in a kibble. The fresh entries lose their water in the oven. The dried ones arrived without any, so they end up supplying much more of the protein in the finished food than their percentage suggests. Both recipes pair the two, which is why a 60% headline yields a declared protein of 28.0%.

Sweet potato does the binding, at 19% in the poultry recipe and 14% in the fish one, with plain potato behind it and no cereal on either list. Carbohydrate converts to 42.1% and 42.9% of dry matter respectively, above the 39.0% typical for a puppy kibble, so these are meat forward recipes without being low starch ones. There is beet pulp for well tolerated fibre, with linseed adding plant omega 3.

The supplement tail is where these labels turn generous. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane come in at 170 mg/kg each with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, real working doses. Joint care begun during growth is a habit worth forming in a dog who will get big. FOS at 92 mg/kg and MOS at 23 mg/kg feed the gut bacteria from two directions, with nucleotides alongside them.

The vegetables are decoration and the labels say as much themselves. Carrot is equivalent to 25g per kilo of product and peas to 8.5g in the poultry recipe, with asparagus at 0.2% in the fish one. Treat them as garnish; these recipes stand on their meat and fish.

The analysis is where the one gap sits. Protein at 28.0%, fat, fibre, ash and moisture are all declared. Neither label prints calcium, and calcium matters more than anything else while a big breed grows. There is no separate additive panel either, though everything added is at least named inside the composition.

Steam Cooked Fish With Vegetables keeps every animal ingredient marine, with no bird anywhere on the list. The share is 21% freshly prepared salmon, 16% salmon meal, 11% freshly prepared blue whiting, 10% freshly prepared haddock and 2% salmon stock. This is the one when poultry is off the menu. Sweet potato is lighter here at 14%, fibre is higher at 3.0%, asparagus appears at 0.2%, and energy is 373 kcal per 100g.

£4.60 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 15kg bags, with the 15kg carrying a working dog label.

Portion sizes for a young dog belong to the growth chart rather than to habit, so check where your pup falls on it as they grow and trim or add from there.