BullyBillows Puppy Dry Food: Scottish Salmon 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% Salmon (Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon (35%), Dried Salmon (22%), Salmon Oil (5%), Salmon Gravy (3%)), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Omega 3 Supplement, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus, Tomato), Minerals, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 178 mg/ kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 178mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (175 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (50 mg/kg), Nucleotides, 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 Scottish salmon recipe breaks its 65% into freshly prepared Scottish salmon at 35%, dried salmon at 22%, salmon oil at 5% and salmon gravy at 3%. Every one of those comes from the same fish, so a pup raised on salmon alone is well served here, and nucleotides appear on this list where the beef recipe has none.

The analysis is lighter. Protein is declared at 32.0%, converting to 34.8% of dry matter, with fat at 15.0% and 16.3% of dry matter. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 36.4% of dry matter, closer to the 39.0% typical than the beef recipe manages. Ash is higher too, at 9.0% and 9.8% of dry matter, and the printed energy figure is 378 kcal per 100g.

Calcium converts to 1.96% of dry matter. Growth plans for large and giant breeds usually work to a lower level than that. If your pup is expected to finish big, put the figure in front of a vet alongside their feeding plan before this becomes the everyday bag. For a small or medium breed puppy on fish, it reads far more comfortably. The superfood blend here is dill, spinach, fennel, asparagus and tomato.

£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.