Ci Foods Ci Tickety Boo Puppy: Salmon, Sweet Potato & Vegetables (Large Breed) review

All four recipes here reach our Excellent band. Every bag therefore sits a rung above the middle of the puppy dry field, where the typical food reads Good. Protein and processing reads Good on every recipe, transparency Outstanding on every one, and value Excellent across all four. Nutritional balance reads Good on the chicken and the tiny bites and Average on the two salmon recipes, so this is one consistent standard, not one strong recipe carrying the rest. The shared 60% meat or fish, the printed calcium figures and the dosed supplement tails do the work. What keeps the top of the range from climbing further is the starch that sweet potato and potato bring with them.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 60% (Freshly Prepared Salmon 38%, Dried Salmon 20%, Salmon Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (19%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Linseed, Minerals, Vitamins, Carrot, Peas 0.2%), Omega 3 Supplement, Vegetable Stock, Glucosamine (355 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (355 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (250 mg/kg), Nucleotides, FOS (96 mg/kg), MOS (24 mg/kg)

Every recipe in the range opens on the same claim, 60% meat or fish, and then breaks it down properly into freshly prepared and dried portions with a stock behind them. That split matters more than the headline. The fresh share includes its water, and the dried has already lost its. So the dried share does more work in the bag than its percentage suggests. The variety notes below set out how each recipe divides its 60%.

The plant side of every bag starts with sweet potato, then potato, then beet pulp for fibre. Cereal does not appear in any of the four. Sweet potato is a gentle, well-tolerated starch that suits young digestions, but it is still starch, and carbohydrate converts higher than the typical puppy kibble in most of these recipes.

Calcium is declared for every recipe and every figure converts inside the range growth needs. That is unusual across a whole range, and it is the strongest single reason to take this one seriously for a puppy. A growing skeleton is less forgiving about calcium than about anything else on the panel.

Linseed and an omega 3 supplement run through all four recipes, covering the fatty acids a young coat and brain draw on, with nucleotides included for gut and immune support. Only the omega 3 supplement leaves its source unnamed. Ask the maker about it if you steer clear of a particular fish.

The joint and prebiotic tail is printed with its doses in every bag. Glucosamine, methylsulfonylmethane and chondroitin sulphate cover the joint side, and fructo-oligosaccharides at 96 mg/kg with mannan-oligosaccharides at 24 mg/kg cover the gut side. The large breed recipe carries roughly double the joint amounts of the others, which is exactly the recipe in which to raise them.

Vitamins A, D3 and E head the added panel across the range, with zinc, iron, manganese, copper and iodine behind them and the amounts printed. Two of the four recipes carry selenium as sodium selenite. Of the two forms pet food is allowed, that is the common one, and at this dose it is worth noticing and no more.

The large breed recipe is the one built around a single fish: freshly prepared salmon at 38%, dried salmon at 20% and salmon stock at 2%, with no other animal named on the list. The joint supplements are raised to suit the job, glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 355 mg/kg each with chondroitin sulphate at 250 mg/kg. Calcium converts to 1.41% of dry matter, inside the growth range. For a puppy going to finish large, no figure on the label matters more. Protein is the lowest of the four at 27.2% of dry matter and carbohydrate the highest at 48.9%, with energy at 376 kcal per 100g. That balance is why it finishes last of the four, though still inside our Excellent band.

£4.00 to £5.12 a kilo depending on the recipe, with each sold as a 2kg bag or a case of four 2kg bags, and three of the four also available as a 13.5kg sack.

A growing dog's portion only makes sense against a growth chart, and every bag carries its own, keyed to your pup's weight today. Check it again every couple of weeks as they grow.