Lifestage Raw Puppy review

This recipe takes our Outstanding band, and it does so from a shade above the typical raw puppy food, in the strongest field we score. The label carries the reasons: a named chicken lead with its own liver behind it, a declared vitamin and trace element panel, a joint pair with real doses and a prebiotic trio. Not one entry in the list is vague. All four pillars, protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value, read Outstanding.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken with Bone (68.5%), Carrot (10%), Chicken Liver (8%), Broccoli (5%), Beef Kidney (4%), Spinach (2%), Kale (1%), Salmon Oil, Chicory Extract, Inulin, MOS, Yeast, Glucosamine (400 mg/kg), Chondroitin (300 mg/kg), Yucca Extract, Thyme, Cranberry, Dandelion Root, Marigold, Ginger, Turmeric.

The build is chicken first and chicken throughout. Chicken with bone takes 68.5%, chicken liver another 8%, and beef kidney at 4% is the only other animal entry besides the salmon oil. Carrot at 10%, broccoli at 5%, spinach at 2% and kale at 1% follow. That leaves a tub roughly four fifths animal and one fifth vegetable, which is the shape a raw diet is meant to take.

At 8%, liver is a serious inclusion here, not a token one. For a growing dog that matters, since liver concentrates vitamin A and B12. Copper and iron come with them, and folate too. Kidney adds to that spread. Between them and the bone in the chicken, the whole-food side of the recipe is doing real nutritional work before the added panel is counted.

Calcium comes from the bone in the grind, and no figure for it appears on the label. For an adult food that would be a minor gap. For a puppy, and particularly a large breed puppy whose growth is sensitive to how much calcium arrives, it is the one number worth chasing Lifestage for. Everything else on this label is declared, which makes the absence stand out more than it otherwise might.

The supporting cast is longer than most raw recipes bother with. Chicory extract, inulin and MOS work as prebiotics, encouraging the useful gut bacteria while a puppy's digestion finds its feet. Yeast and yucca extract sit with them. Glucosamine at 400 mg/kg and chondroitin at 300 mg/kg give the joints something to work with. Thyme and cranberry, dandelion root and marigold, ginger and turmeric finish the list at trace level, more seasoning than nutrition.

The additive panel is properly detailed. Vitamins A, D3 and E are each given a figure per kilo. Zinc, manganese and copper each arrive twice over, as a sulphate and as a glycine chelate, with iron and iodine at 0.6 mg to finish. Chelated forms tend to be the better absorbed, so a panel offering both is a thoughtful piece of work.

On the analysis it reads exactly as the ingredients promise. Protein converts to 51.9% of dry matter, fat to 33.3% and carbohydrate to 5.5%, at 131 kcal per 100g. That is a moderate, balanced richness rather than the very high fat some raw puppy recipes run to. That makes it easy to feed to a fast-growing dog without the portion swinging about.

£5.50 a kilo, sold in 500g tubs.

A growing dog's appetite changes month by month, so the label carries two sets of amounts rather than one. A 10kg dog is given 200g to 300g a day, and 500g to 600g a day while it is under twelve months old.