Feelwell's Feelwells Grain Free Puppy review

Feelwells Grain Free Puppy reaches our Excellent band, one clear of the Good band where the typical puppy dry food settles. Protein and processing and nutritional balance each read Good, transparency is Outstanding and value Excellent alongside the overall. Several things are done properly here instead of one spectacularly: a large meat headline itemised to the last percent, calcium printed and in range for growth, and a supplement tail with real doses. Its starch share is the one place it gives ground to the very strongest growth kibbles, and it is a small concession set against the rest.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken, Turkey & Salmon 60% (20% Fresh Chicken, 14% Dried Chicken, 7% Fresh Turkey, 7% Fresh Salmon, 7% Dried Turkey, 3% Dried Salmon & 2% Chicken Stock), Sweet Potato (22%), Potato, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Omega 3, Minerals Vitamins, Carrot (0.2%, Peas (0.07%), Vegetable Stock, Glucosamin (170mg/kg), MSM (170mg/kg), Chondroitin Suphate (125mg/kg), Nucleotides, FOS (96mg/kg), MOS (24mg/kg)

The 60% meat headline is broken out in full, and too few labels do that. Fresh chicken at 20% and dried chicken at 14% lead. Then come fresh turkey and dried turkey at 7% each, plus fresh salmon at 7%. Dried salmon adds 3% and chicken stock 2%. The dried entries matter more than their share suggests. Their water is already gone, so their protein goes straight through into the finished kibble. Fresh meat loses a lot of weight in the oven.

Three species in one bag is a strength for a pup with nothing to avoid and a limit for one that has. Chicken leads, as it does in more dog food than any other meat, and the great majority of dogs digest it easily. Turkey and salmon sit behind it, bringing a different amino acid and fat profile to the same bowl. Protein reads 29.0% as fed, or 31.5% of dry matter.

Sweet potato at 22% does the binding with potato behind it, and the list holds no grain of any kind. Moisture is declared at 8.0%, so the dry matter conversions here rest on the label and not on an assumption. Carbohydrate comes out at 41.9% of dry matter, a little above the middle of the puppy dry field. Beet pulp adds a gentle fibre and linseed brings plant omega 3 alongside the salmon's marine version. The omega 3 entry itself names no source, so it neither adds a species nor narrows the recipe.

Calcium converts to 1.3% of dry matter, with ash at 7.0%, and that is the line to look at hardest on any growth food. Too little and a skeleton is short of material. Too much and a fast growing large breed pup can be pushed harder than its joints want. Growth works to a range, and this figure sits inside it, printed on the bag. That is exactly what a big breed owner wants to find.

The supplement tail is written like a label that expects to be checked. Glucosamine and MSM come in at 170 mg/kg apiece, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Nucleotides join them, along with the prebiotic pairing of FOS at 96 mg/kg and MOS at 24 mg/kg, which feed the friendly bacteria in a young gut. Carrot at 0.2% and peas at 0.07% close the list at seasoning level.

The added panel is dosed in print as well, with vitamins A, D3 and E. Zinc is at 50 mg, iron at 50 mg and manganese at 35 mg. Copper is at 15 mg, iodine at 1 mg and selenium at 0.3 mg. Energy comes out at 384 kcal per 100g against the 376 typical of a puppy dry food. That makes this a slightly richer bag than the middle of the field, and portions should reflect it.

£3.56 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 13.5kg bags, an 8kg pack made up of four 2kg bags, and double packs of 2 x 12kg and 2 x 13.5kg.

What a pup eats at ten weeks and what the same pup eats at six months are not the same meal at all. Lean on the bag's growth chart, and keep checking it against the pup as it grows. One figure set once will not last.