Collards Puppy Lamb and Rice review

The lamb recipe reads in our Good band, level with the typical puppy dry food. Its transparency pillar reads Outstanding, and rightly so, because very few labels break their meat down into meal, fat and gravy with a figure on each. Protein and processing reads Average and nutritional balance Good. What holds the reading down is the mineral side: bone in the meal lifts ash to 9.5% of dry matter and calcium to 1.92%, generous for growth and easier on smaller pups than big ones.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 40% (Lamb Meat and Bone meal 26% Lamb Fat 12%, Lamb Gravy 2%), Brown Rice 12%, White Rice 12%, Potato Protein, Whole Barley 11.5%, Whole Linseed 5%, Sugar Beet Pulp 2%, Salmon Oil, Dried Alfalfa 0.5%, Natural Seaweed Meal 0.5%, Fructo-Oligosaccharide (from chicory root extract 0.25%), Sodium chloride, Potassium chloride, Methionine 0.05%, Yucca extract 0.01%, L-Carnitine, Marigold extract 0.005%, Rosemary extract 0.005%.

The headline is lamb at 40%, and the label pulls it apart properly: 26% lamb meat and bone meal, 12% lamb fat and 2% lamb gravy. The fat inclusion is unusually large, and it comes off the same animal as the meat. That is why the analysis declares 19.0% fat, or 20.9% of dry matter. Protein comes in at 29.0%, converting to 31.9%.

The meal is specifically lamb meat and bone, so ground bone rides along with the meat. Bone is a natural calcium and phosphorus source, and it shows in an ash reading of 8.6% as fed and a calcium conversion of 1.92% of dry matter. Growing bone needs plenty of both minerals, and a small or medium pup will use them happily. A dog on course for a large or giant adult frame is the one case where that level wants checking against a feeding plan.

No meat but lamb appears on the list. For a pup who has reacted to poultry, or who is simply doing better on red meat, that is a clean choice. Salmon oil sits further down for its omega 3, so this is a single-meat recipe without being free of animal species altogether, and anyone excluding fish needs to spot it.

The starch is shared between brown rice and white rice at 12% apiece and whole barley at 11.5%, with potato protein alongside them as a plant protein. The total is comparatively restrained, converting to an estimated 35.0% of dry matter where puppy kibble typically runs at 39.0%, which leaves more of the bowl for the meat and the fat to fill.

Whole linseed at 5% is a large inclusion for a seed, bringing plant omega 3 and a useful amount of fibre with it, and sugar beet pulp at 2% adds the gentler, well-tolerated kind. Dried alfalfa and natural seaweed meal at 0.5% each finish the plant side, seaweed being a natural source of iodine and other trace minerals.

The closing entries are named down to the last hundredth: fructo-oligosaccharide from chicory root at 0.25%, methionine at 0.05%, yucca extract at 0.01%, L-carnitine, and 0.005% each of marigold and rosemary extract. Rosemary is the natural antioxidant here, keeping the fats fresh. In a recipe carrying this much fat, that matters more than usual. The added vitamin and trace element panel is the one thing left unpublished, headed as nutritional additives without doses.

You can buy it as a 2kg resealable bag or as a 10kg bag.

There is no set measure for puppy portions. What a pup needs climbs steadily, then levels off as they approach their adult frame. Start from the bag's chart. The ribs and the waistline will tell you when to adjust it.