Go Native Puppy review

Go Native Puppy takes a place in our Excellent band, a step above the Good band where the middle of the puppy kibble field settles. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, protein and processing reads Good, and value keeps pace with the overall in Excellent, so nothing here is quietly carrying the rest.

The lift comes from two things: how much of the recipe is genuinely fish, and how much restraint has been shown with the starch.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Salmon 40%, Dehydrated Salmon 25%, Potato Starch, Sweet Potato, Salmon Oil 8%, Pea Starch, Whole Linseed, Dried Seaweed, Hydrolysed Liver Protein 1%, Sodium Chloride, Yeast Extract, Dried Apple, Dried Spinach Powder (5% fresh spinach equivalant), Dried Ginger Extract (4% fresh Ginger Equivalant), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate, BOTANICALS: Alfalfa, Dried Blueberry, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Dried Marigold, Oregano, Dried Rosehip, Turmeric, Yucca schidigera.

Salmon does nearly all the animal work here, and the label breaks it down instead of hiding behind one number: 40% fresh salmon, 25% dehydrated salmon and 8% salmon oil. The dehydrated share is the one to weigh properly. Dried fish arrives with its water gone, so pound for pound it delivers more to the biscuit than fresh fish can. Declared protein of 33.0% bears the front of the bag out.

Not one other meat is named on the list. For a pup kept to one fish, that makes this a real option. The single caveat is the hydrolysed liver protein at 1%, which does not say what it came from. Hydrolysed proteins are broken down small enough that they rarely provoke a reaction, so for a pup who simply gets along better with fish it is a non-issue. A strict exclusion trial still has to account for it.

Potato starch and sweet potato bind the kibble alongside pea starch, with no grain involved at all. Pure starches are exactly what they sound like: structure, not nutrition. The amount used here is modest by kibble standards, and that is why the estimated carbohydrate figure is 28.5% of dry matter where the class typically runs at 39.0%. Fat is the other side of that trade, declared at 22.0% and converting to 24.4% of dry matter.

The middle of the list holds whole linseed and dried seaweed. Linseed brings plant omega 3 with a useful fibre attached, and seaweed is a broad mineral source, iodine in particular, which the thyroid depends on. Dried apple, spinach and ginger follow, the spinach declared as equivalent to 5% fresh and the ginger to 4% fresh. After them comes a botanical run from alfalfa and blueberry through to turmeric and yucca. Read that tail as seasoning, because the recipe stands on its fish.

Glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate are both on the list, which is a good sign in a growth food. Neither carries a dose, though, so whether they are working inclusions or a gesture towards joints is anyone's guess. The added vitamin and trace element panel is dosed, and it is unusually generous with the zinc. Zinc is supplied twice over, at 97 mg as the oxide and 200 mg in a chelated amino acid form, the second of those being the more readily absorbed.

The gap in the analysis is calcium. Protein, fat, fibre, ash and moisture are all declared, moisture at 10.0%, so the dry matter column rests on a printed figure. Calcium is not given. The bag is listed for everything from toy breeds to giants, so anyone rearing a large breed will want that figure in hand before starting. The maker is the place to get it.

£6.25 a kilo, sold in 800g, 4kg and 12kg bags.

As a rough guide, our standard energy estimate has a 10kg pup of four to twelve months getting through 181 to 221 grams a day. A pup's daily amount is a moving target though, climbing through the fastest months and easing off once the frame has filled out. Set the portion from the chart on the pack against age and expected adult weight, then check along the ribs by hand every couple of weeks.