James & Ella Kibble + Raw Puppy review

Meat is what carries this one into our Good band, a little ahead of the typical puppy dry food that shares it. Transparency reads Outstanding, while protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all read Good, the mark of a label doing several things competently rather than one thing spectacularly. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 34.7% of dry matter where the puppy typical runs at 39.0%, so the starch base is lighter than most kibbles ask for. Moisture is not declared, so those dry matter figures work from the standard 8% assumption for a kibble.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 60.5% (Freshly Prepared Free-range Turkey 24%, Turkey Meal 23%, Freeze Dried Turkey Pieces 8%, Turkey Fat 5.5%), Potato (22.5%), Sweet Potato (12%), Peas (4%), Vegetable Gravy, Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil, Minerals, Dried Carrot (0.5%, Equivalent to 4% Carrots), Prebiotic MOS (0.2%), Cranberry Extract (0.015%), Blueberry Powder (0.015%), Marigold Meal, Turmeric, Dried Spearmint. Key ingredients highlighted on the page: Free-range turkey, Potato, Sweet potato, Peas, Carrot, Blueberry Powder, Cranberry Extract, Oils, Turmeric, Dried spearmint

Turkey at 60.5% is one of the higher meat headlines in a puppy kibble. The label then breaks that headline into its parts: freshly prepared free-range turkey at 24%, turkey meal at 23%, freeze dried turkey pieces at 8% and turkey fat at 5.5%. Water has already gone from the meal and the freeze dried pieces, so they carry more protein into the finished food than their share suggests.

Just as usefully, turkey has the meat side to itself. The fat comes from the same bird as the protein, so the animal side of the recipe stays with one species. For a pup being reared on a single meat, that makes this a real option.

Starch duties fall to potato at 22.5%, to sweet potato at 12% and to peas at 4%, with no cereal anywhere to be seen. Beet pulp adds gentle fibre, and dried carrot at 0.5%, equivalent to 4% fresh carrots by the label's own note, brings a little vitamin A along with it.

Salmon oil is the one entry that complicates an exclusion plan. A growing brain and coat make use of the marine omega 3 it supplies, and it is also why fish appears on the allergen picture of a bag whose only meat is turkey.

Further down, prebiotic MOS at 0.2% looks after the gut bacteria. Cranberry extract and blueberry powder sit at 0.015% each, and marigold meal, turmeric and spearmint follow them, all of it garnish. Vegetable gravy is the vaguest thing on the list, a heading broad enough to cover a range of plants.

The declared analysis prints protein at 30.0%, fat at 19.0%, fibre at 2.0% and ash at 9.0%, then stops. Moisture is left out, so our dry matter conversions work from the standard 8% assumption, and no calcium figure is printed at all. In rearing a big pup, calcium does the hardest work of any number, and on an otherwise well-itemised label its absence is the one real gap.

£15.33 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg, 3kg, 4.5kg and 6kg bags.

A puppy's portion is really a series of portions, climbing while the frame fills out and easing back as it finishes. Start from the bag's own chart and let your pup's shape do the fine tuning.