Lifestage Grain Free Puppy Dry Food: Salmon with Haddock review

Both recipes here sit in our Excellent band, one step up from the band the typical puppy kibble occupies, with the poultry led recipe a shade ahead of the fish one. Transparency is the pillar doing the most work, reading Outstanding on each, which follows naturally from labels that break their meat and fish out entry by entry and keep the starch to named vegetables. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good. What holds the pair back from pressing higher is the missing calcium declaration, which on a growth food is the figure with the most riding on it.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon And White Fish (55%), Freshly Prepared Salmon (30%), White Fish Meal (16%), Salmon Meal (4%), Salmon Stock (4%), Salmon Oil (1%), Sweet Potato (15%), Potato, Peas (12%), Rapeseed Oil, Beet Pulp (2%), Linseed (1%), Minerals, Asparagus, Yeast Hydrolysate (A Natural Source Of Mannanoligosaccharides And Beta Glucans), Fructooligosaccharides (Fos), Glucosamine, Methylsulfonylmethane, Chondroitin Sulphate

Both recipes lead with a headline percentage and then break it down, which is the habit that separates a label worth reading from one worth skimming. In each case the total is split between a freshly prepared portion, a dried portion, a fat or oil and a stock or gravy, all named to species. You can see exactly where the protein is coming from and in what form.

Neither recipe contains grain. Most of the binding is sweet potato, and potato and peas come behind it. Beet pulp adds a modest, well tolerated fibre. Peas in moderation earn their place, with fibre and a range of micronutrients to offer. In both bags they sit well below the meat.

Glucosamine, methylsulfonylmethane and chondroitin sulphate appear on both lists, together with fructooligosaccharides as a prebiotic. None of the four carries a printed quantity, so take them as a considered inclusion with no figure to go on. They are still the right ingredients to find in a growth food, and they are named in plain sight.

The gap on the two labels is the same one. Neither declares a calcium figure. The range is sold for puppies of every size, from a toy breed that finishes early to a giant breed still filling out well into its second year. That makes calcium the number with the most riding on it. Ask the maker for it. Nothing about the recipes suggests a problem, but a large breed rearing plan cannot rest on a figure nobody has printed.

Both recipes declare 9.0% moisture and 8.0% ash. On our energy estimate both come in a little under the 376 kcal per 100g typical of a puppy dry food, which mostly means a slightly fuller scoop. The added mineral and vitamin panels are printed with figures on each, including copper at 15 mg/kg and iodine at 2 mg/kg, so the supplementation side is properly documented.

This is the fish only recipe, and its 55% total breaks down in the same way. Freshly prepared salmon takes 30%, white fish meal 16%, salmon meal 4%, salmon stock 4% and salmon oil 1%. No land animal appears anywhere on the list, and for a pup that does badly on poultry that is a strong point in its favour. Salmon and white fish are two different fish, so this is not a single species diet. The starch work goes to sweet potato at 15% with potato and peas at 12%. Rapeseed oil joins the salmon oil on fats, and linseed at 1% adds plant omega 3. Protein is declared at 27.0% and fat at 16.0%, which come out at 29.7% and 17.6% of dry matter, with energy estimated at 364 kcal per 100g. Taurine is added here too, a nutrient fish led recipes often carry. The prebiotic side comes from a yeast hydrolysate, which the label calls a natural source of mannanoligosaccharides and beta glucans.

£3.30 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 10kg bags.

A growing dog's daily amount is a curve, climbing hard through the early months and easing off as the frame completes. Use the chart on the pack for your pup's age, then let what you see in front of you settle it.