Husse Valp Plus review

Valp Plus sits in our Good band, level with the middle of the puppy dry shelf, though it comes in under that midpoint rather than over it. Value reads Good in step with the overall placing, nutritional balance and transparency read the same, and protein and processing reads Average. The reason runs through this whole range: the analysis is respectable while the ingredient list holds back more than it needs to.

On the numbers, protein converts to 31.5% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 38.5% against a 39.0% typical, so nothing in the composition is out of step with the shelf. On the list, maize and maize protein sit high while three separate entries arrive without a species or a source attached. That gap between what the food is and what the label will say for it is what keeps the position where it is.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken, rice, maize, animal fat, vegetable fibres, linseed, maize protein, hydrolysed animal protein, yeast, salmon, salmon oil, salt, fructo-oligosaccharides (0.5%), psyllium (0.5%), dried whole eggs, potassium chloride, mannan-oligosaccharides (0.1%), lecithin, sea algae, vegetable oil, fatty acid salt, rosemary.

Chicken opens the list in its plain form. Plain chicken usually means fresh chicken, and much of what it weighs leaves as water in the oven. The analysis is the better guide: protein at 29.0% as fed converts to 31.5% of dry matter, a sound growth level, and fat at 18.0% converts to 19.6%.

Rice and maize between them supply the starch, and maize protein adds a plant protein contribution behind them. Carbohydrate converts to 38.5% of dry matter, sitting just under the 39.0% typical of a puppy kibble, so the recipe is not leaning on cereal any harder than the field does. Maize is the entry to hold in mind if your pup has reacted to it before, since it appears here twice over.

Calcium is declared and converts to 1.3% of dry matter, inside the range growth needs. On a bag listed for every size, no number matters more. A giant breed pup and a toy one ask very different things of the same food, and a printed, in-range figure is what makes the wide listing credible.

The fibre and prebiotic tail is the most thought through part of the list. Psyllium husks at 0.5% bring soluble fibre, fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.5% and mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.1% feed the friendly gut bacteria, and vegetable fibres add the bulk. Dried whole eggs contribute high quality protein in a small quantity.

For fats, animal fat and vegetable oil do the heavy lifting and neither says where it comes from, which is the label's weakest moment. The omega 3 side is handled by linseed, salmon and salmon oil together, seed and marine sources side by side. That is genuinely useful for a coat and a nervous system still under construction.

The added panel is well filled, with vitamin A at 20850 IU/kg, vitamin D3 at 1850 IU/kg and vitamin E at 580 mg/kg. Iron follows at 200 mg/kg, manganese at 63 mg/kg, zinc from two sources at 108 and 12 mg/kg and beta-carotene at 1 mg/kg. Clinoptilolite at 10 g/kg works as a processing aid, and tocopherols and rosemary keep the fats sweet. Moisture is declared at 8%, so nothing in the dry matter figures rests on an assumption.

£4.31 a kilo, sold in 2 kg, 7 kg and 12.5 kg bags.

What a pup needs at three months and what they need at nine are different questions. Work from the bag's growth chart, and update the amount as their likely adult weight becomes clearer.