Carnilove True Fresh Puppy review

This one settles in our Excellent band, one rung above the middle of the puppy dry field, which reads Good. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both return Good, value reads Excellent, and transparency reaches Outstanding and does much of the lifting. Construction helps it along: carbohydrate converts to 33.5% of dry matter where the typical puppy kibble runs at 39.0%. The calcium is both printed and in range, which is more than a lot of growth foods manage.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh duck (60%), yellow peas, beef fat (8%), hydrolysed liver (3%), pea protein, linseed, chickpeas (2%), pumpkin (2%), salmon oil (2%), red lentils, dried apple pulp (1%), carrots, egg shells, potassium chloride, sodium 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%).

Fresh duck at 60% opens the recipe. Fresh means weighed before cooking, so the duck in the finished kibble is a smaller share than the headline suggests, but what it leaves behind is protein at 30.0%, or 33.3% of dry matter. Duck is an easily digested meat with a strong record in palatability tests, which is a useful pairing when a pup is still learning what mealtimes are.

Hydrolysed liver at 3% is doing the appetite work. Hydrolysed simply means broken into smaller fragments, which is why it is such a reliable way to make a kibble smell interesting, and liver is one of the more nutrient-dense things a recipe can include. The label stops short of naming which animal it came from.

On the plant side yellow peas come first, then chickpeas and pumpkin at 2% each, with red lentils behind. No cereal appears at all. Carbohydrate converting to 33.5% of dry matter is a lighter starch load than most kibbles carry. Lower on the list come pea protein and pea flour, and both are vegetable protein propping up the analysis.

Beef fat at 8% is a large part of why this recipe runs richer than most growth foods, taking fat to 19.0% and energy to 388 kcal per 100g. Salmon oil at 2% and linseed handle the omega 3 side from marine and plant sources both, which covers coat and brain development from two directions.

Calcium converts to 1.56% of dry matter, declared and inside what growth needs, which is exactly the line a puppy owner should look for before anything else on the panel. Ash converts to 8.8% of dry matter, and the egg shells and mineral salts on the list are where a good deal of that mineral content originates.

The dosed tail runs glucosamine at 0.022%, chondroitin at 0.014%, chicory root for fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.0163% and brewer's yeast for mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.013%, with Mojave yucca at 0.0085% closing it. Sea buckthorn at 0.2% and the berries and herbs at 0.1% apiece are trace-level seasoning, so the recipe stands on its duck rather than its botanicals.

The kilo price is £6.66, with bags at 1.5kg, 4kg and 12kg.

Feeding a growing pup is a moving target. The maker's guide is organised around the adult weight your pup is expected to reach, so start from the column that matches and keep revisiting it as the weeks go by.