Healthy Paws Puppy review

Healthy Paws Puppy lands in our Good band, level with the middle of the puppy dry field. Transparency reads Outstanding with nutritional balance and value Good behind it, and protein and processing on Average is the single reading that stops it going further. Dried turkey at the head of the list is what does the most for it, and the pair of rices immediately behind is what holds the ceiling where it is.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Turkey 28%, Brown Rice 26%, White Rice, Prairie Meal, Beet Pulp, Turkey Fat 6%, Sunflower Oil, Turkey Stock 2%, Minerals, Vitamins, Alfalfa, Salmon Oil, Linseed, Garlic 0.47%, Seaweed Oil, Carrot, Cranberry, Dandelion, Cleavers, Parsley, Blueberry.

Dried turkey at 28% is worth decoding. A dried meat reaches the mixer with its water already gone. The declared share therefore arrives in the bowl close to the printed figure. A fresh meat headline cannot promise that. Protein comes out at 28.0% as fed, or 30.4% once the moisture is taken out of the sum.

Turkey fat at 6% and turkey stock at 2% are both named to the species, which is more than plenty of growth kibbles manage with their fats. Sunflower oil joins them, a light oil that brings vitamin E along with its fatty acids. The omega 3 side comes from linseed on the plant side and salmon oil on the marine.

Brown rice at 26% and an unquantified white rice do the binding, and the arithmetic lands where you would expect. Carbohydrate is estimated at 37.0% as fed, or 40.3% of dry matter against the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. Beet pulp does the fibre work here, gentle and well tolerated, and crude fibre is declared at 2.5%.

Two entries decline to explain themselves. Prairie meal appears high on the list with no note on what it is, and alfalfa lower down is a forage crop with no figure attached. Neither should put you off the bag, but both are places where the label could tell a puppy owner more than it does.

Ash is declared at 8.5%, and calcium converts to 1.82% of dry matter. Growing bones want plenty of both, and a small or medium puppy will use that happily. This figure sits above where growth is usually pitched for a large or giant breed, and that is why the note above matters for a big pup.

The end of the list is garnish. Carrot and cranberry, then dandelion, cleavers, parsley and blueberry, all arrive after the seaweed oil at levels the label does not quantify. Garlic is the one entry down there with a figure attached, at 0.47%.

The additive panel is dosed in print, with vitamin A at 14,400 IU and vitamin D3 at 2,160 IU. Vitamin C is at 168 mg and vitamin E at 100 mg, with a full trace element set behind them and DL-methionine at 2,200 mg. The pack declares no energy figure, so the 364 kcal per 100g here is our own estimate.

£4.17 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

No single daily amount fits a growing dog, because the right portion climbs steeply and then settles again as your puppy nears adult size. Start with the bag's growth chart, weigh the food out properly, and let your dog's shape make the final adjustment.