Green Pantry Puppy: Salmon with Sweet Potato & Veg review

Green Pantry Puppy sits in our Excellent band, while the typical puppy dry food lands in our Good band, one below. Behind an Outstanding transparency reading sit value at Excellent and protein and processing at Good. What keeps it from pressing higher is less what is in the bag than what the label declines to declare, and the ingredient notes below set out exactly what that is.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Salmon (35% Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon, 22% Dried Salmon, 5% Salmon Oil, 3% Salmon Gravy), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Omega 3 Supplement, Fruits, Botanicals & Herbs: Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus, Tomato), *Each equivalent to 4% Fresh Ingredients

That 65% salmon headline is unusually well broken down. There is 35% freshly prepared Scottish salmon, then 22% dried, 5% oil and 3% gravy, all of it salmon. Dried fish went in without its water, so that 22% does more of the protein work in the finished kibble than its share suggests. Declared protein of 33.5% is the analysis agreeing with the front of the bag.

Just as usefully, no animal but salmon appears in the recipe. The oil and the gravy come from the same fish as the meat, so the whole label stays with one species. That is exactly what a single-protein pup needs.

Sweet potato does the binding with beans in support, and no cereal appears on the label. Beet pulp brings a modest and well-tolerated fibre. A named omega 3 supplement tops up fatty acids the salmon is already supplying.

The list closes on a dried superfood blend: dill, spinach, fennel, asparagus and tomato, with the label's own note putting each at the equivalent of 4% fresh ingredients. Treat it as the garnish; this recipe stands on its fish.

The additive panel reads like a growth checklist done properly. FOS at 192 mg/kg and MOS at 48 mg/kg pair with nucleotides on the gut and immune side. Glucosamine and MSM are both at 170 mg/kg, and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg.

The declared analysis is where the label runs short. Protein at 33.5%, fat at 15.0% and fibre at 2.5% are printed, then it stops. There is no ash, no moisture and no calcium. On a growth food, calcium is what the owner of a large-breed puppy looks for first, and it is not there. The energy figure of 362 kcal per 100g is our estimate rather than a declaration. None of that undermines what the ingredients list shows, but it is the part of this label with the most room to grow.

£9.47 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 4.5kg bags.

Puppy portions do not sit still. They move with age and with expected adult weight, so use the growth chart printed on the bag and adjust to condition. At the bottom of its own guide the label puts the smallest pups on 75g a day, and at the top of the range the figure is 400g a day.