Natural & Delicious N&D Pumpkin Puppy Medium & Maxi review

Our Excellent band is where this one comes out, ahead of the middle of the puppy kibble market. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, with protein and processing Good and value Excellent. The strengths on show are the size of the meat share and how little carbohydrate sits behind it. The other thing in its favour is the label's habit of naming its sources, right down to which part of the chicken the joint compounds come from.

Ingredients, as declared: lamb (24%), dehydrated lamb protein (24%), pea starch, chicken fat, dehydrated herring protein, dried pumpkin (5%), herring, dried eggs, fish oil (from herring), pea fibre, dried carrot, alfalfa meal, chicken cartilage (source of glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate), inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast, extract (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), dried blueberry (0.5%), dried spinach, psyllium husks and seeds (0.3%), dried apple, dried sweet orange, dried pomegranate, sodium chloride, dried brewers' yeast, turmeric (0.2%), aloe vera extract.

Lamb is listed twice, at 24% and again as 24% dehydrated lamb protein. The dehydrated entry has had its water removed already. Weight for weight it therefore delivers protein to the finished kibble at a rate fresh meat cannot match. Between them they take protein to 35.0% as declared and 38.5% of dry matter.

Pea starch is the binder, and it is worth understanding what that means. The refined starch is drawn out of the pea and the vegetable itself stays behind. It was chosen for what it does to the kibble, not for what it brings to the dog. Pea fibre appears further down the list for the other half of that job. The upshot is a carbohydrate estimate of 28.5% of dry matter, meaningfully under the 39.0% typical of a puppy kibble.

Dried pumpkin at 5% is the recipe's signature and a kind ingredient for a young digestion, mildly fibrous and easy on the stomach, sitting alongside dried carrot and alfalfa meal. Crude fibre is declared at only 1.9%, though, so the overall fibre level stays modest. Read the pumpkin as a gentle touch and not a digestive overhaul.

Dehydrated herring protein and herring itself bring marine protein, with the fish oil drawn from the same fish, while dried eggs add highly digestible protein and chicken fat supplies much of the added fat. It is a broad animal picture, which is good news for the amino acid spread and awkward news for anyone shopping around a particular species.

The mineral reading is the part of a growth label to check first, and this one is straightforward. Ash is declared at 8.1% and calcium converts to 1.21% of dry matter, a level that sits inside what a growing frame is built to handle. This recipe is written for medium and maxi puppies, and a big skeleton is much less forgiving of a calcium level pitched wrong. On a small breed bag the figure would matter less than it does here.

The list closes with a long and well named tail. Chicken cartilage is the stated source of glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate. Inulin and fructooligosaccharides come with a yeast extract for the mannan-oligosaccharides. After those come psyllium at 0.3%, blueberry at 0.5%, spinach, apple, sweet orange, pomegranate, turmeric at 0.2% and aloe vera extract. The declared panel adds taurine at 1000 mg and L-Carnitine at 300 mg, with selenium given in its yeast form.

£11.00 a kilo, sold in a 2.5kg bag.

Take portions from the bag's chart, going by your pup's age and how big you expect them to get. Puppyhood keeps moving the target, so check them against their condition as you go. The printed guide asks for 95g a day early on for a pup heading towards 10kg, rising to 440g a day for one on course for 40kg.