Natural & Delicious N&D Spirulina Puppy Medium & Maxi: Lamb, Spirulina & Wolfberry review

Our reading gives this one the Excellent band, and the middle of the puppy kibble field trails it. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good, and transparency goes further at Outstanding.

Holding that position are a declared calcium figure and a starch load lighter than most growth kibbles manage.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb (24%), dehydrated lamb protein (22%), sweet potato, chicken fat, dehydrated herring protein, dried spirulina (5%), herring, dried eggs, dried wolfberry (2.5%), 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 spinach, psyllium husks and seeds, sodium chloride, dried brewers' yeast, turmeric, aloe vera extract.

The label opens with lamb at 24% and follows it with dehydrated lamb protein at 22%. Those are the same animal in two states, and the dried one carries more protein per percentage point because its water has already gone. Protein lands at 33.0% of dry matter with fat at 22.0%, an analysis with plenty of both.

Sweet potato takes on the starch job and no cereal appears at all. At an estimated 33.4% of dry matter, carbohydrate sits under the 39.0% typical of puppy kibble. Nothing starchy is being hidden behind that meat headline. Fibre falls to pea fibre and psyllium husks. Working on the gut are inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides, plus a yeast extract that supplies mannan-oligosaccharides.

Calcium reads 1.21% of dry matter on the printed analysis, and on a food sold for medium and maxi puppies that is the single most reassuring line on the pack. A big frame still forming is unforgiving about mineral balance. A figure in print, inside the growth range, counts for more here than anything printed on the front of a bag.

Spirulina at 5% is the name on the label, a dried algae with a dense nutrient profile, and dried wolfberry at 2.5% brings antioxidants along with it. Carrot, alfalfa meal, spinach, turmeric and aloe vera extract fill the tail of the list at levels that read as trimming.

Herring appears three ways over, as dehydrated herring protein, as herring itself and as fish oil drawn from it. That is a considered route for marine omega oils into a growth recipe, though it also puts fish firmly on the allergen picture next to lamb, chicken fat and egg.

The added panel is well stocked. Per kilo there is choline chloride at 2800mg and vitamin E at 600mg, with taurine at 1000mg and L-carnitine at 300mg. Selenium is supplied as selenised yeast and not as the mineral salt form. DL-methionine at 6000mg tops up an amino acid that growing coats draw on heavily.

Sold in bags from 2kg up to 7kg.

The chart on this bag is set out by age as well as by weight, which is the honest way to guide a puppy. The 20kg line runs from 140g a day at two months to 280g a day at six months, and every line on it climbs before it settles. Move down the chart as your pup fills out rather than holding one amount all year.