Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential The Beginning Large Breed: Nautical Edition review

Name: Essential Foods Essential The Beginning Large Breed: Nautical Edition
Brand: Essential Foods

66.4/100Good

DryPuppy

Flavour

Two routes to rearing a big pup, both with calcium declared and in range, which is the figure that counts most here. The standard recipe reaches our Excellent band on chicken and duck. The all-fish Nautical Edition sits a step behind in Good.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Large and giant breed puppies, the only size either recipe is written for
Owners who read calcium first: 1.53% and 1.41% of dry matter
Pups reared on fish, with the Nautical Edition's meat all marine
Traceable meat. Free-range British chicken and duck on the standard bag
Measured growth, at 362 and 355 kcal per 100g

Worth watching

The season's fish, fresh and dried, is not named to species
Chicken and duck share one entry, so neither bird gets its own figure
Whole egg in both, so the Nautical Edition is not a pure fish diet

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

66.4/100Good

Protein and processingGood

Nutritional balanceGood

TransparencyExcellent

ValueGood

The details

Dog fit

Listed for puppies of large and giant breeds. Feed from the expected adult weight column on the pack and trim as your pup develops.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Puppy

Breed size

Large, Giant

Main protein

Salmon

The score, in context

Essential The Beginning Large Breed 73.0
Nautical Edition 66.4

Two recipes across Excellent and Good. Typical dry food: Good.

The standard recipe earns its place on the panel as much as in the pot, and the Nautical Edition trails it mostly because it declares no ash.

What's in it

Freshly prepared salmon and trout44%
Sweet potato, peas
Dried salmon12%
The season's dried fish9%No species named; it shifts with the catch.
Essential the Omega 3 Oil5.5%The maker's own oil.
Linseed, alfalfa, potato, pea fibreFibre runs higher here.
The season's fresh fish, salmon gravy4% and 2.5%Again no species for the seasonal fish.
Whole eggs2%The only animal that is not a fish.
FOS, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, MOSUndosed.
Cranberry, acai and other fruits and botanicals

Vitamins A, D3 and E with taurine, and zinc, iron and manganese as chelates, a slightly lower panel than the standard bag.

No ash declared, so the dry-matter picture stops short and carbohydrate cannot be worked out.

Named ingredients

Freshly prepared salmon and trout (44%), sweet potato, peas, dried salmon (12%), the season's dried fish (9%), ESSENTIAL the OMEGA 3 OIL (5.5%), linseed, alfalfa, potato, the season's fresh fish (4%), pea fibre, salmon gravy (2.5%), whole eggs (2%), minerals, fructooligosaccharides, glucosamine, MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), chondroitin, mannanoligosaccharides, cranberry, acai, bilberry, mulberry, apple, tomato, orange, pear, carrot, spinach, cauliflower, seaweed, marigold, ginseng, decaffeinated green tea & ginger.

Against the range

Meat: All fish, salmon and trout leading at 44%; Chicken and duck lead the standard bag.
Fibre, as fed: 5.5%; 3.5% on the standard.
Calcium, dry matter: 1.41%; 1.53% on the standard.
Energy: 355 kcal per 100g; 362 on the standard.

The one for a big pup that needs to stay off poultry.

Two large-breed growth recipes on the same frame. The standard bag leads on fresh and dried chicken and duck, with egg and fish behind; the Nautical Edition swaps every animal for fish apart from 2% whole eggs. Both declare calcium inside the growth range.

The functional tail is shared: two prebiotics, a joint set and a long run of fruits and botanicals, none of it dosed. Trace elements come as chelates on both, and both are preserved with rosemary extract.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

355 kcal/100g

Protein

28%

Fat

15%

Fibre

5.5%

Moisture

Dry weight

Protein

30.4%

Fat

16.3%

Fibre

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

73.5%

Carbs

16.8%

Veg

1.4%

Oils

5.5%

Other

2.7%

Pricing & size