Carnilove Active Puppy review

This recipe lands in our Excellent band, a level up from the Good band where the middle of the puppy kibble market settles. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding. Value comes in at Excellent, and protein and processing settles further back in our Good band. The protein reading, the light starch load and the printed additive doses are what hold it up there.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh salmon (26%), turkey protein (20%), yellow peas, beef fat (12.5%), turkey hydrolysed protein (12%), hydrolysed liver (3%), pea protein, linseed, salmon oil (1.5%), chickpeas, pumpkin, dried apple pulp, carrots, potassium chloride, pea flour, dried sea buckthorn (0.2%), dried ginger root (0.1%), dried blueberries (0.1%), dried rosemary (0.1%), dried cranberries (0.1%), dried thyme (0.1%), hydrolysed crustacean shells (source of glucosamine, 0.022%), chicory root (source of fructo-oligosaccharides, 0.0163%), cartilage extract (source of chondroitin, 0.014%), brewer's yeast (source of mannan-oligosaccharides, 0.013%), Mojave yucca (0.0085%).

Four animal entries do the work here: fresh salmon at 26%, turkey protein at 20%, hydrolysed turkey protein at 12% and hydrolysed liver at 3%. The two turkey entries are dry ingredients, so what they say on the label is close to what they deliver in the bowl. The fresh salmon parts with most of its water on the way through the oven. The declared protein of 36.0% converts to 40.0% of dry matter, which is a strong figure for a dry food of any kind.

Yellow peas, chickpeas, pumpkin and dried apple pulp make up the plant side, with pea protein and pea flour adding some vegetable protein to the total. The starch load is genuinely light: carbohydrate is estimated at 25.2% as fed, or 28.0% of dry matter, where the typical puppy dry food runs at 39.0%. Fibre is modest at 2.5%, which most young digestions handle without fuss.

Beef fat at 12.5% is the main source of energy, joined by salmon oil at 1.5% and linseed for omega 3. Fat is declared at 19.0%, or 21.1% of dry matter, and energy reaches 396 kcal per 100g against the 376 typical. This is a food that rewards a pup who is out and about, and one to measure carefully for a pup who is not.

In dry matter terms the calcium is 1.67%. Carnilove lists this food for puppies of every size. For a small or medium pup that reading is unremarkable, but a large breed growth plan would normally aim lower. If your puppy is going to be a big adult, that is the line to take to your vet along with the feeding guide. It is also the reason to keep a big youngster growing steadily and not in a rush.

Naming the sources of the joint and prebiotic ingredients is good practice, though the amounts are fractions of a percent. Glucosamine comes from hydrolysed crustacean shells at 0.022%, chondroitin from cartilage extract at 0.014%, FOS from chicory root at 0.0163% and MOS from brewer's yeast at 0.013%. Take them as a gentle extra rather than the reason to choose the food.

The additive panel is generous and fully quantified, with taurine at 1,500 mg/kg, choline chloride at 2,400 mg/kg, vitamin E at 530 mg/kg and zinc at 86.8 mg/kg among the entries. Tocopherol extracts and rosemary extract keep the fats from turning, and that matters in a food this rich. Trace amounts of botanicals close the list, there for flavour.

£6.25 a kilo, in bags of 1.5kg, 4kg and 12kg.

What a puppy eats this month is not what they will eat next month. Read the feeding chart against the adult weight you are expecting, then let their condition set the final amount in the bowl.