Hoddy's Puppy review

Our reading places Hoddy's Puppy in our Good band, right alongside the typical puppy kibble, with three of its four pillars reading Good and transparency climbing clear of them to Outstanding. The meat side is handled genuinely well, every animal named and measured and the whole recipe kept clear of cereal, and that is what carries it. The mineral picture is what holds it there. Calcium runs higher than a large breed growth plan wants to see, and the added nutrient panel stops at three vitamins where most makers itemise the trace minerals as well.

Ingredients, as declared: Game (49%, of which pheasant (26%) • dried duck (19%) • dried venison (4%)) • sweet potato • potato flakes • peas • chicken fat • chicken stock • dried beet pulp • linseed • minerals • yeast hydrolysate (a natural source of MOS and beta glucans (1%)) • dried chicory (a natural source of FOS and inulin (1%)) • dried carrots • dried kelp • Yucca schidigera.

The game headline is broken down properly, which is rarer on a bag than it ought to be. Game at 49% resolves into pheasant at 26%, dried duck at 19% and dried venison at 4%. Dried is how the duck and the venison are declared, so their water has already gone and their printed shares hold up in the finished kibble. The pheasant figure is a fresh weight and will shrink through cooking.

Protein lands at 28.0%, or 30.8% of dry matter, with fat at 18.0%. Energy comes out at 390 kcal per 100g against a 376 typical, so this is a kibble with some drive behind it. That suits a pup who never stops moving, and it asks for the scoop to be levelled on one who does.

Peas sit behind the sweet potato and potato flakes that carry the starch, and grain is absent from the list entirely. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 37.9% of dry matter, a little under the 39.0% typical, which tells you the grain-free route here has not simply swapped one filler for another.

Chicken is where the game story runs into a complication. Chicken fat and chicken stock both sit on the list, the fat for energy and the stock for palatability, and both put chicken into a recipe whose front is entirely game. For a pup who merely prefers game that is neither here nor there; for one being kept away from chicken it matters a great deal.

Calcium converts to 1.65% of dry matter. That is a generous mineral level, comfortable for a toy or small breed pup laying down a modest skeleton, but higher than the figure large and giant breed growth tends to be planned around. Every size is listed on the bag, so anyone rearing a big pup should put that number in front of their vet when the feeding plan is drawn up.

The tail of the list reads well. Yeast hydrolysate at 1% supplies mannan-oligosaccharides and beta glucans. Dried chicory at 1% adds fructo-oligosaccharides and inulin, and both work as prebiotics, feeding the gut's existing bacteria rather than adding new ones. Linseed covers plant omega 3, dried kelp supplies iodine and trace minerals, and yucca sits at the end where it usually does, working on how pleasant the garden is to walk across.

£5.83 a kilo, sold as a 300g puppy pouch and in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

Our standard energy estimate puts a 10kg puppy aged four to twelve months at roughly 181.6 to 221.9 grams a day. In its first four months the same pup is nearer 272.4 to 332.9 grams.

A growing puppy moves those figures every few weeks. Keep the growth chart live and keep adjusting it as your dog changes.