Dachshund Superfood Puppy: English Free Range Turkey review

Both recipes come to rest in our Excellent band, and they sit close together inside it. The typical puppy dry food sits a band lower in Good. These two clear the middle of the field on the strength of a high declared meat share, a light starch load and a calcium figure that is actually printed. Transparency reads Outstanding on both labels and protein and processing Good on each. Value keeps step with the Excellent reading of the food itself. Nutritional balance is Excellent on the salmon and Outstanding on the turkey, so neither recipe has a weak side.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Turkey & Pork (35% Freshly Prepared Free Range Turkey, 14% Dried Pork, 11.5% Dried Turkey, 2.5% Turkey Gravy, 2% Turkey Fat), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (including Parsley, Papaya, Nettle, Courgette, Pumpkin), Minerals, Omega 3 Supplement, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 180 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 180 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 175 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 50 mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%), *Each equivalent to 4% Fresh Ingredients

Both recipes lead with 65% animal ingredients, and neither leaves that headline as a slogan. The label splits it into freshly prepared meat, dried meat, gravy and fat or oil. The dried portion counts for more than its share suggests. Dried meat has already given up its water, so the protein it declares is roughly the protein that reaches the kibble. Fresh meat is weighed with the water still in it.

The binding comes from beans and sweet potato, with beet pulp behind them for a gentle fibre, and no cereal appears on either list. That keeps the starch load lighter than most kibbles ask for, and both recipes come in below the 39.0% of dry matter that carbohydrate typically reaches in a puppy dry food.

Calcium is declared on both recipes and both figures sit inside the range growing bone needs, at 1.41% of dry matter in the turkey and pork and 1.30% in the salmon. Calcium is the classic thing to get wrong when rearing a puppy, so a printed, in range number is exactly the reassurance you want. Plenty of growth labels never offer it at all.

The joint package is a working one with the milligrams on show. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane run at 180 mg/kg each in the turkey and pork and 170 mg/kg each in the salmon, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg in both. Prebiotics are printed too, with fructooligosaccharides at 175 mg/kg in the turkey and pork and 192 mg/kg in the salmon, and mannanoligosaccharides at 50 and 48 mg/kg respectively. Both feed the helpful bacteria that live in a puppy's large bowel. That is worth supporting while a young digestion settles in.

The dried superfood blend closes each list, and the label is candid about its scale, noting each entry as equivalent to 4% fresh ingredients. Read it as seasoning. What holds these recipes up is the meat at the front and the minerals behind it, and the missing additive panel is the one place where the labelling could be more generous than it is.

The English free range turkey recipe splits its 65% five ways: 35% freshly prepared free range turkey, 14% dried pork, 11.5% dried turkey, 2.5% turkey gravy, then 2% turkey fat. That gives it the higher protein reading of the pair, at 37.5% as fed, or 40.8% of dry matter. It is the lighter of the pair on starch as well, with carbohydrate estimated at 28.0% as fed and 30.4% of dry matter, and energy lands at 372 kcal per 100g. The calcium here works out at 1.41% of dry matter.

The pork alongside the turkey is worth noting twice over. It means the recipe carries two meats rather than one, so it will not serve a single protein plan. It also means a pup is being offered a meat that turns up in comparatively few dog foods, which is something owners of allergy prone dogs often go looking for deliberately. The supplement doses in this recipe are glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 180 mg/kg each with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, alongside FOS at 175 mg/kg and MOS at 50 mg/kg.

£6.17 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

What a small breed pup needs at three months is not what they need at six, so read the guide printed on the pack and let their waistline confirm the answer. The printed guide runs from 45g a day at the light end to 75g a day at its widest point.