Imby Insect-Based Puppy review

Our Good band is where this recipe settles, level with the typical puppy dry food. Transparency reads Outstanding, helped by percentages that keep appearing well down the list, with nutritional balance Good and the other two pillars Average. Protein converts to 30.8% of dry matter and carbohydrate to an estimated 37.9%, a shade under the 39.0% typical, so the starch load is ordinary for a kibble rather than light.

Ingredients, as declared: Insect 25% (dried insect protein 19%, insect oil 6%), sweet potato, hulless oats, white rice, green peas, maize gluten, rapeseed oil, dried beet pulp, minerals, dried brewer's yeast, pea protein, dried chicory, MOS (mannan-oligosaccharides), dried thyme (0.1%), dried marjoram (0.1%), dried oregano (0.1%), dried parsley (0.1%), dried sage (0.1%), dried nettle (0.1%), dried broccoli (0.1%), dried spinach (0.1%), dried tomatoes (0.1%), dried cranberries (0.05%), dried blueberries (0.05%), glucosamine hydrochloride (0.01%), chondroitin sulfate (0.01%).

The insect content is declared at 25% and then broken down, which is more than many novel protein foods bother to do: dried insect protein at 19% and insect oil at 6%. Dried protein arrives without its water, so the share printed is close to the share that reaches the kibble. Declared protein of 28.0% converts to 30.8% of dry matter.

What makes this recipe genuinely useful for an exclusion diet is what is absent. Insect is genuinely the sole animal ingredient in the bag, because the list carries no animal fat, no hydrolysate and no fish oil. That is rare enough to be worth stating plainly.

Sweet potato, hulless oats, white rice and green peas share the carbohydrate work. Oats are among the gentler grains for a puppy gut, and whole peas bring a useful spread of nutrients of their own. The maize gluten and pea protein behind them are plant proteins, and they help the analysis along.

Rapeseed oil supplies the added fat, a well-regarded plant oil in dog food, and dried brewer's yeast brings a natural run of B vitamins with it. The prebiotic pairing is dried chicory and MOS. Both work on the large intestine, feeding the bacteria that live there and not the pup itself.

At the tail of the list sits a herb and berry garden. Thyme, marjoram, oregano, parsley, sage and nettle come in at 0.1% each, with broccoli, spinach and tomatoes at the same level, and cranberries and blueberries at 0.05%. Take these as seasoning; the recipe stands on its insect protein.

Calcium converts to 1.1% of dry matter, inside the range growth needs. The maker lists the bag from toy right up to giant. Ash at 8.8% of dry matter backs that up as a properly mineralised growth food. Energy of 372 kcal per 100g is our estimate rather than a declaration, and it lands just below the 376 kcal typical.

£11.67 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg bags.

A puppy has no single daily amount to quote. Feeding a four month old and feeding a ten month old are two different jobs. The bag's chart is the starting point, and your pup's condition decides the final scoop.