Growling Tums Puppy review

Growling Tums Puppy earns a place in our Good band, and the typical puppy dry food lands in the same band, with this one sitting a shade under that middle mark. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance Good and protein and processing Average. The label tells you a great deal and then builds its base from cereal, and those readings say so.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Dried (30%), Rice (19%), Maize (18%), Oats, Poultry Fat, Beet Pulp, Fish Dried, Chicken Gravy, Linseeds, Egg Powder, Brewers Yeast, Salmon Oil, Minerals and Vitamins, Yucca extract, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, minerals and vitamins.

Dried chicken at 30% is the headline, and a dried meat percentage is worth more than a fresh one, because there is no water in it waiting to cook away. Chicken gravy further down the list comes from the same bird, and a dried fish sits between them adding a second animal protein.

Rice at 19% and maize at 18% form the base, with oats behind them. Carbohydrate is estimated at 35.8% as fed and converts to 39.0% of dry matter, exactly the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. The starch load here sits squarely mid field.

Calcium is declared, and it converts to 1.3% of dry matter, inside the range growth needs. The label is sold for pups of every size, toy up to giant, and what makes a span that wide credible is the printed, in range figure.

The rest of the analysis reads protein at 32.6% of dry matter, fat at 14.1% and crude ash at 10.0%, all worked against a declared moisture of 8.0%. Energy is 377 kcal per 100g, and that figure is declared on the label.

Egg powder, linseeds, brewers yeast and salmon oil close out the useful part of the list. Linseed carries the plant form of omega 3 and the salmon oil brings the marine kind, so the coat gets both. Brewers yeast is a good natural source of B vitamins. Yucca extract at the tail is a long standing inclusion for what comes out the other end.

The joint ingredients are the one place this otherwise talkative label goes quiet. Glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin are all listed, which is more than most growth kibbles bother with, but no dose is printed beside any of them, so their contribution cannot be judged from the bag.

The trace element panel repays a look, because much of it is chelated rather than plain. Zinc comes part as an amino acid chelate and part as sulphate, 160 mg/kg in total, with iron reaching 99 mg/kg by the same pairing and copper 16 mg/kg. Vitamin A is printed at 26,760 IU/kg and vitamin D3 at 1,800 IU/kg.

£3.40 a kilo, sold in 3kg, 7.5kg, 10kg, 12kg and 15kg bags.

A puppy's portion moves with their age and their expected adult size. Take the amount from the bag's growth chart, then let what you can feel over their ribs settle the rest.