Growling Tums Gourmet Adult Large Breed: Salmon review

Our scoring places this in the Good band, and so does the typical adult dry food. Transparency reads Outstanding. Nutritional balance is Average, with protein and processing and value both Good. The more useful signal sits behind those marks. Species are named, the fresh and dried split is printed, joint supplements and prebiotics come in milligrams, and the list is short enough to read in the aisle. One caveat on the table below, since the label declares no moisture the dry matter figures work from the 8% a dry kibble normally holds.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon and Trout 50% (including Freshly Prepared Salmon & Freshly Prepared Trout 33%, Dried Salmon 15%, Salmon Stock 2%) Sweet Potato (24%), Peas (9%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Asparagus (0.3%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

Salmon and trout at 50% resolve into 33% freshly prepared and 15% dried, plus 2% salmon stock. Most of what fresh fish weighs is water, and much of that goes in the oven. The dried 15% is therefore the part doing the heavy lifting once the kibble is made. The result is protein at 26.1% of dry matter and fat at 14.1%, a comfortable balance for an adult dog of size.

Sweet potato at 24% leads on the plant side, with peas at 9% and potato behind. No cereal appears at all. Carbohydrate converts to 47.3% of dry matter, close to the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, so the recipe stays meat-forward and not starch-forward.

Every part of the joint trio carries a dose: glucosamine at 170 mg per kilo, MSM at 170 mg and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg. Trial evidence for these supplements is mixed, not settled. A heavy dog is exactly the animal most likely to want whatever they offer, and printing the dose is the honest way to put them on a label.

Fructooligosaccharides at 96 mg and mannanoligosaccharides at 24 mg per kilo are the prebiotics. Their work is on the bacteria of the large intestine, not on the dog directly. Plant omega 3 comes from linseed, next to the salmon oil the fish brings with it, and asparagus at 0.3% is the label's garnish.

Doses are printed for the trace minerals too: zinc at 50 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg and iodine at 1 mg per kilo, with vitamin E at 95 IU. Copper is not among them. Fish and plants both carry some naturally, so a dog is unlikely to go short. Its absence from an otherwise well-documented panel is the one thing this label leaves you to work out for yourself.

£5.08 a kilo, sold in 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 232 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.18 a day. A large breed dog needs considerably more than that, so work up from the label's own table and let the waistline settle the rest.