Lily's Kitchen Dry Puppy review

This kibble finishes in our Good band, and the middle of the puppy dry field sits there too. The comparison is with its own kind, not with a softer group. It clears that middle mark because the label declares what many growth foods leave out, calcium included. Transparency reads Outstanding while protein and processing reads Average, and nutritional balance and value both come back Good, so the openness of the label is doing real work for it.

Ingredients, as declared: 44% Chicken & Salmon: Fresh Chicken (27%), Freshly Prepared Salmon (10%), Chicken Liver (7%). Sweet Potatoes, Pea Protein, Potato Protein, Whole Lentils, Whole Peas (4%), Chicken Fat, Egg, Chicken Gravy, Flaxseed, Minerals, Botanicals & Herbs* (1%), Salmon Oil, Joint Care Mix (Methylsulfonylmethane 1600mg/kg, Glucosamine 1500mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 1500mg/kg), Prebiotics (Mannan Oligosaccharides 2.5g/kg, Fructooligosaccharides 1.5g/kg), Carrots, Apples, Cranberries, Spinach. *Botanicals & Herbs: Alfalfa, Chickweed, Cleavers, Goldenrod, Nettles, Seaweed, Dandelion Root, Celery Seeds, Milk Thistle, Burdock Root, Marigold Flowers, Rosehips.

The meat block is stated as 44% chicken and salmon and then broken open for you: 27% fresh chicken, 10% freshly prepared salmon and 7% chicken liver. Liver is the quiet workhorse of that trio, dense in B vitamins, copper and iron that a fast-growing puppy draws on, and it is named outright rather than folded into a derivative term.

Fresh and freshly prepared meats go on the scales before cooking, so a fair share of those percentages is water the oven takes away. That is normal for the format and not a criticism. It is why the declared protein reads 29.0%, or 31.5% once moisture is taken out, and not something nearer the number on the front of the bag.

Pea protein and potato protein follow the meat, and they are worth naming. Both are refined leftovers of vegetable processing, not whole foods. Vegetable protein trails animal protein for digestibility, so they shore up the analysis without improving the quality behind it.

Starch comes from sweet potatoes, with whole lentils and whole peas at 4% behind them. There is no cereal on the list at all. The carbohydrate estimate lands at 36.5% as fed, or 39.6% of dry matter, a shade over the 39.0% typical of the puppy dry field, so this is grain free rather than starch light.

Calcium decides whether a big puppy can be reared on a food, and Lily's Kitchen prints the figure: 1.3% of dry matter, comfortably inside the range large breed rearing works to. That is why the bag can be listed for every size of puppy, toy through to giant, without hedging.

Every supplement in the tail comes with a dose beside it. The joint care mix carries methylsulfonylmethane at 1600 mg/kg, with glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate at 1500 mg/kg apiece. The prebiotic pair runs mannan oligosaccharides at 2.5 g/kg alongside fructooligosaccharides at 1.5 g/kg, both feeding the friendly bacteria a young digestion is still establishing.

A botanical and herb blend at 1% closes the recipe, and unusually the label names every plant inside it, from alfalfa and nettles through to milk thistle and marigold flowers. Carrots, apples, cranberries and spinach come after them. Read that stretch as character and interest; the food stands on its meat, its starch base and its printed doses.

£10.50 a kilo, sold in a 1kg bag.

Puppy portions do not hold still. Use the chart on the pack, matching your pup's age and the size they are growing into, then look at their shape every week or two and adjust from there.