BullyBillows Puppy Dry Food: Angus Beef review

These two are not scored quite alike, though they share a band. The Angus beef occupies our Excellent band, a step above the Good band the typical puppy kibble reaches, with nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding, value Excellent and protein and processing Good. The Scottish salmon comes in a little lower but holds the same band, with transparency Outstanding, value Excellent and its other two pillars reading Good.

The gap is not about the meat headline, which is 65% either way. It is about what the analysis does with it. The beef recipe declares more protein and more fat over a lighter starch load, and its mineral picture sits more comfortably for a puppy expected to finish large. The salmon recipe still has plenty to offer a fish fed pup, and the variety notes set out where each one stands.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Beef (Freshly Prepared Angus Beef (35%), Dried Beef (25%), Beef Fat (5%)), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Carrot, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Tomato, Courgette), Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 178 mg/kg, Methylsulfonymethane 178 mg/kg. Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (175 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (50 mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%), *Each equivalent to 4% Fresh Ingredients.

Both labels do something helpful with their 65% headline: they itemise it. You get the fresh meat, then the dried meat, then the fat or oil, each listed with its own percentage. That shows you how much of the 65% is still water bound and how much is already concentrated. Dried meat has given up its moisture before it goes into the mixer, so it carries more of the finished kibble's protein than its printed share suggests. The freshly prepared portion, meanwhile, shrinks in the oven.

Cereal is absent, so sweet potato and beans hold the kibble together, with beet pulp behind them for a modest, well tolerated fibre. An omega 3 supplement tops up the fatty acids, though it is the one entry on either list that declines to name where it came from.

The supplement tail is identical across the range and printed properly in milligrams per kilo. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane come in at 178 mg/kg apiece with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, which is a working joint package rather than a gesture towards one. Fructo-oligosaccharides at 175 mg/kg and mannan-oligosaccharides at 50 mg/kg cover the prebiotic side, and olive extract at 0.01% closes the list as an antioxidant.

Each bag also carries a dried superfood blend, and the maker is straight about its scale: every entry in the blend is equivalent to 4% fresh ingredients. That puts the vegetables and herbs firmly in the garnish category. These recipes stand on their meat, not on their botanicals.

Both labels declare the full five line analysis and print an energy figure, which is more transparency than a lot of the field manages. The two analyses are not the same though, and neither are the calcium figures, so take the variety notes as the part that decides which bag suits your pup.

The Angus beef recipe splits its 65% into freshly prepared Angus beef at 35%, dried beef at 25% and beef fat at 5%. No animal but beef appears anywhere on the list. For a pup being kept to one species that makes this the cleaner of the two, subject to the unnamed omega 3 supplement noted above.

It is the meatier reading of the two on paper. Protein comes in at 36.0% as fed, converting to 39.1% of dry matter, with fat at 18.0% and 19.6% of dry matter. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 29.9% of dry matter, against the 39.0% a typical puppy kibble runs at. The declared energy figure is 391 kcal per 100g, above the 376 typical for the format. So this is a recipe that fuels a busy pup on a smaller bowl.

Calcium converts to 1.2% of dry matter, a declared figure that sits inside the range growth asks for. That is the reassurance an owner of a large or giant breed puppy wants before they commit. The superfood blend here runs to carrot, green beans, cauliflower, tomato and courgette. The trace element panel is the fuller of the two, listing zinc, iron, manganese, copper, iodine and selenium with their doses.

£6.67 a kilo across both recipes, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

How much a puppy needs changes almost weekly. Read the chart on the bag against your pup's age and the weight you expect them to finish at, and let their waistline settle the final amount.