Hero by Asda Puppy Dry review

This bag finishes in our Average band, a step under the Good band held by the middle of the puppy dry field. The pillars split: transparency reads Good, nutritional balance and value both Average, and protein and processing Poor. The reason sits in everything the pack leaves out. There is no named grain, no named meat beyond the 4% chicken, no named fat and no moisture line, so there is very little here to credit. The protein declaration is the one figure that stands up on its own.

An Average band comments on the label as it stands and predicts nothing about your individual puppy. If a growing dog is visibly doing well on a food, talk to your vet before you change it.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, Meat and Animal Derivatives 25% (Including min 4% Chicken) Vegetable Protein Extracts, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Oils and Fats, Minerals, Chicory Root (0.1%)

Cereals is the very first entry, which tells you grain does most of the building, but not which grain. That cuts two ways: you cannot avoid a cereal your puppy reacts to, and the maker is free to change the source between batches without changing a word on the pack.

Meat and animal derivatives at 25% is the meat block, with a minimum of 4% chicken named inside it. The remainder of that quarter of the bag could be any warm blooded land animal in any proportion, and that is the honest limit of what the label will tell you.

Vegetable protein extracts and derivatives of vegetable origin help explain the 28.0% protein declaration, because plant protein counts towards that headline exactly as meat protein does. A dog gets less out of plant protein than out of meat protein, gram for gram. That makes the figure read a little better than the sources standing behind it.

Fat is declared at 10.0%, or 10.9% of dry matter. The entry behind it is oils and fats. That names no plant and no animal. Growing puppies lean on fat hard, both for energy and for the fatty acids that go into brain and coat, so this is the number to keep in mind when you set portion sizes.

Two lines are absent from the analysis, and both are ones a puppy owner would use. No moisture is declared, so this page works the dry matter figures from the 8% we assume as standard for a kibble. No calcium figure appears either, and on a growth label that is the number an owner most wants. Carbohydrate lands at 45.6% of dry matter on that assumption, above the 39.0% typical of the field.

Chicory root at 0.1% closes the recipe. It is a real prebiotic ingredient, rich in inulin, though at that inclusion it is a nod towards gut support and nothing like a working dose. The vitamin and mineral panel comes with its doses printed. Zinc runs at 40 mg, iron at 40 mg, manganese at 30 mg and copper at 8 mg per kilo. Iodine is at 2 mg, selenium at 0.1 mg, vitamin E at 90 mg and vitamin D3 at 1200 IU per kilo.

£1.19 a kilo, sold in a 2.5kg bag.

A puppy's daily ration rises steadily, then eases back as they approach their adult frame. Start from the bag's own chart and let your dog's condition guide the rest.