Husse Valp Digest review

Valp Digest reads Good on our scale. So does the middle of the puppy dry field, which means this one keeps company with the pack rather than pulling clear of it. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average with transparency and value at Good, and the analysis shows where those Average marks come from: protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter while carbohydrate converts to 43.9%, against 39.0% for the typical puppy food, so the cereal side is doing more of the work than the meat headline implies. Moisture is declared at 8%, so unlike several of its stablemates the conversions here come off the label rather than an assumption.

No single failing holds it where it is. It is how much of the list arrives without a species attached. That is set out in the notes below.

Ingredients, as declared: lamb, rice, rice flour, chicken, animal fat, linseed, vegetable fibres, hydrolysed animal protein, salmon, salmon oil, yeast, salt, fructo-oligosaccharides (0.5%), potassium chloride, lecithin, fatty acid salt, sea algae, rosemary.

Lamb opens the list, a sound choice where settling is the aim: gentle on the digestion, and few pups turn it down. Listed plainly as lamb, it usually means the fresh form. The oven takes most of that water out, so the finished kibble carries less lamb than its place at the head of the list first suggests.

Rice does the binding twice over, as rice and again as rice flour. Cooked rice is among the gentlest starches a sensitive gut can be given, which is clearly the thinking here. It also pushes carbohydrate up to 43.9% of dry matter, where the typical puppy kibble runs at 39.0%. Protein lands at 26.0% as fed, or 28.3% of dry matter, so this is a steadier recipe than the richer bags in the range.

Chicken and salmon sit alongside the lamb, with salmon oil behind them. That is good news for the coat and the brain, marine oils being the strongest source of the omega 3 fatty acids a growing pup uses. Linseed adds a plant side to the same story. It does mean the allergen picture covers lamb, chicken and fish together, so if you came to this bag hoping to narrow a pup's exposure, the list will not do that for you.

Calcium is where a large pup's owner needs to slow down. It converts to 1.74% of dry matter, which is generous for growth and above the level large breed plans usually aim for. Small and medium pups will use it happily, and the bag is listed across every size. If your pup is going to finish large or giant, run it past your vet before this becomes the everyday food.

The digestive package is modest but real: fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.5% as a named prebiotic, vegetable fibres for bulk, yeast for its B vitamins and lecithin as an emulsifier. Sea algae and rosemary close the list. The rosemary is a natural antioxidant, put there to stop the fats turning.

The added panel is well filled, with vitamin A at 20000 IU/kg, vitamin D3 at 1850 IU/kg and vitamin E at 580 mg/kg. Iron comes in at 201 mg/kg, zinc from two sources at 108 and 12 mg/kg, and beta-carotene at 1 mg/kg. Clinoptilolite at 10 g/kg is a mineral clay used as a processing aid. Salt and potassium chloride both appear on the list, the salt for palatability, which is common enough but worth a note for anyone watching sodium.

£4.55 a kilo, sold in a 7 kg bag.

How much a pup needs shifts from one week to the next. Start from the bag's growth chart, then trim or add according to how they are carrying themselves.