HiLife Puppy Chicken Recipes 150g Pouch Selection review

The selection sits in our Excellent band, and so does the typical puppy wet food, which makes that a strong field to be measured in. Outstanding is the mark for both nutritional balance and transparency. A fully itemised list, a high named meat share and an analysis matching the front of the pouch earn that. It clears the middle of the field comfortably rather than simply keeping pace with it.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken with Wholegrain rice, peas and pumpkin Pate: Chicken (50%), cooked wholegrain brown rice (4%), peas (4%), pumpkin (4%), sunflower oil (2%), fish oil (0.5%), minerals, chicory extract (300 mg/kg), seaweed extract (200 mg/kg), yucca extract (50 mg/kg). Chicken with Wholegrain Rice, Carrots and Apple Pate: Chicken (50%), cooked wholegrain brown rice (4%), carrots (4%), apple (4%), sunflower oil (2%), fish oil (0.5%), minerals, chicory extract (300 mg/kg), seaweed extract (200 mg/kg), yucca extract (50 mg/kg)..

Chicken at 50% is the whole meat story in both pates, and no other animal appears anywhere except the half a percent of fish oil. Protein lands at 8.5% as fed and converts to 39.5% on a dry matter basis, with fat at 8.0% converting to 37.2%. A food built from meat has exactly that shape.

The plant side is small and precisely declared. The only grain is cooked wholegrain brown rice at 4%. Peas and pumpkin sit at 4% each in the first recipe, with carrots and apple at 4% each in the second. Carbohydrate is estimated at 3.0% as fed, or 14.0% of dry matter, against the 13.6% typical of a puppy wet food. The produce is doing exactly what it looks like it is doing.

Sunflower oil at 2% is a light oil that carries vitamin E along with its fatty acids. A growing brain and coat both need long chain omega 3s, and fish oil at 0.5% supplies them. Chicken is the only meat here, and fish still shows up on the allergen picture because of it.

Ash is declared at 1.5%, converting to 7.0% of dry matter, and calcium to 1.4%, which sits neatly inside the range growth works best in. For the smaller pups this selection is aimed at, that is a carefully judged mineral load. Nothing on the label matters more in a puppy's first year.

The tail of the list carries doses, not decoration. Chicory extract runs at 300 mg per kilo, a well known prebiotic fibre source. Seaweed extract at 200 mg brings iodine and a wide spread of minerals. Yucca extract at 50 mg is there for its effect on what the garden smells like afterwards.

Sold as 150g pouches, in packs of 8 and 24. A per kilo figure is not one we can quote for this selection at the moment.

Starting at 75g a day for the smallest puppies, the label's own guide rises sharply from there. That is the point of a growth food: read the chart again as your dog gains, and do not settle on one amount and leave it.