Growling Tums Superfood Adult: Superfood Salmon review

All four recipes settle in our Excellent band, a step above the Good band where the middle of the adult dry shelf finishes. Two things carry the range up there: a large animal share that every label breaks into its parts, and a carbohydrate load that reads lighter than the shelf norm. The buffalo stands apart from its siblings on meat content and joint supplements rather than on any change of construction, so a dog already thriving on one of the birds has no reason to move.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Salmon (35% Freshly Prepared Salmon, 23% Dried Salmon, 4% Salmon Oil & 3% Salmon Stock), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus, Tomato), Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Vitamins, Fructooligosaccharides (192 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (48 mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%).

Every label opens with 65% animal content and then itemises it, which is the part worth reading. All four recipes put freshly prepared meat at 35%. Fresh meat is mostly water, so the dried meat behind it carries the finished kibble further than the bag's front suggests. That dried share runs at 22% in the chicken and duck and 23% in the salmon, which is generous. The analysis agrees: carbohydrate converts to between 27.7% and 37.5% of dry matter, where the typical adult dry food runs at 46.2%.

The plant side of every bag starts with sweet potato, then beans, named as haricot beans on the duck label. Not a grain of cereal appears anywhere across the four bags. Beet pulp supplies the fibre, listed as sugar beet fibre in the duck, and it brings both the soluble and the insoluble kind.

The dried superfood blend that gives the range its name changes with the animal, so the buffalo carries basil, blackberry and turmeric while the salmon leans on dill, fennel and asparagus. The buffalo label prints a useful caveat, that each item in the blend is equivalent to 4% fresh ingredients, which places the whole blend well below the beans in the finished food. Take it as a pleasant flourish on top of the recipe.

Fructooligosaccharides at 192 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 48 mg/kg run through all four recipes with their doses in print. Both are prebiotic fibres. Their job is the gut bacteria further down, and the dog gets nothing from them directly. Small additions like these tend to show in the garden. Olive extract closes each list as an antioxidant.

The trace minerals come as sulphates, the more ordinary of the two forms alongside chelates. Every one of them is dosed on the label, so you can see exactly what your dog is getting. Zinc, iron, manganese, copper and iodine all appear with figures beside them.

The one entry that stays vague is the omega 3 supplement, which appears in all four recipes without a source. On the salmon that changes nothing, since fish is named all the way down the list anyway. On the chicken, duck and buffalo it means fish cannot be ruled out, so those three are not the place to start a strict elimination trial.

Salmon all the way, freshly prepared at 35% and dried at 23%, plus salmon stock at 3% and salmon oil at 4%. Its animal content is fish and nothing else. Where land meats are off the menu, this is the natural choice. Protein converts to 34.8% of dry matter and fibre is the lightest of the four at 2.7%, with dill, spinach, fennel, asparagus and tomato in the superfood blend.

The chicken, duck and salmon recipes are £5.75 a kilo and the buffalo is £8.83 a kilo. Chicken comes in 6kg and 12kg bags, duck and salmon in 4kg, 6kg and 12kg, and buffalo in a single 6kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 226 grams a day of the chicken and 216 grams of the duck. The salmon comes out at 222 grams and the buffalo at 232 grams, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). In the same order that puts the daily figure at £1.30, £1.24, £1.28 and £2.05. Let your dog's waistline decide the portion.