Naturaw Forage Puppy review

Both recipes land in our Outstanding band, where the middle of the raw puppy field sits as well. Holding that line without a vitamin premix is the interesting part of the result. Protein and processing and nutritional balance read Outstanding on both, transparency comes in at Average on the chicken led recipe and Good on the turkey, and value reads Outstanding across the pair. The Free Range Turkey edges ahead of the chicken led recipe. Every ingredient on its label carries a percentage, and its analysis leans further towards protein at 55.2% of dry matter against 46.0%.

Ingredients, as declared: Organic British Chicken with Bone, Boneless Grass Fed British Beef (Meat, Heart, Liver), Whole Seasonal Oily Fish, Organic Broccoli, Whole Blackberries, Free Range British Egg, Organic Kale, Sustainably Hand Harvested Organic Scottish Seaweed, Wheatgrass, Pumpkin Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Sustainably Sourced Scandinavian Blue Mussel (Msc), Cleavers, Nettles, Pure Yorkshire Sea Salt

The absence of a premix is the decision everything else follows from. Naturaw's stated position is that these complete recipes reach their nutritional balance through whole foods, with no added vitamins and minerals behind them. The egg, the oily fish, the seaweed, the organic vegetables and the botanical blend each carry part of the load. It is a demanding way to build a puppy food, and the ingredient list is detailed enough that you can see how the argument is meant to work.

Meat, bone and organ are all present and mostly named to the cut. The chicken led recipe puts organic British chicken with bone first and follows it with boneless grass fed British beef itemised as meat, heart and liver. The turkey recipe is more explicit still. It gives free range British turkey and its bone 46.8% and grass fed British lamb 32.3%, split as meat and heart at 12.5% each and liver at 7.3%. That is a real organ share on both, which is where much of a growing dog's micronutrition actually comes from.

The Forage botanical blend is the range's signature and it is fully declared. Iodine and a broad mineral spread come from the hand harvested organic Scottish seaweed. Wheatgrass is the leaf of the plant, not the grain, so no cereal and no gluten reach the bowl. Fats and minerals come from the pumpkin and hemp seeds, while cleavers and nettles are traditional herbs at trace level. Scandinavian blue mussel is in there too, certified for sustainable sourcing and, being a shellfish, the entry to note in a household avoiding them.

Pure Yorkshire sea salt closes both lists. On the turkey recipe it sits inside a botanical blend declared at 2.5% of the whole, so the amount is very small indeed. On the chicken led recipe it is the final entry of the list. Raw recipes commonly carry a pinch of salt for the sodium a bowl needs, and at this position it is doing that job rather than seasoning the food for flavour.

The analyses suit their purpose. The chicken led recipe reads protein at 46.0% of dry matter and fat at 39.8% with energy declared at 170 kcal per 100g, a rich, dense bowl for a fast growing puppy. The turkey comes in leaner at 55.2% protein and 29.6% fat with 140 kcal per 100g. Carbohydrate is estimated by difference at 4.9% and 3.9% of dry matter respectively, close to the 3.2% typical of raw puppy food. What little there is arrives from broccoli, kale and blackberries, with nothing starchy on either list.

Organic British chicken with bone leads here, with boneless grass fed British beef behind it as meat, heart and liver. This label prints no percentages at all, so the order of the list is what you have to read it by. Energy is declared here, not estimated, and at 170 kcal per 100g it makes the denser bowl of the two, with fat converting to 39.8% of dry matter.

The chicken led recipe is £7.06 a kilo and the Free Range Turkey £7.64. Both are sold in 500g packs, in a small box of 16 x 500g and in a large box of 30 x 500g.

The label feeds by bodyweight, not by a calorie estimate, starting at 8% of bodyweight a day for a puppy under three months old. That works out at 160 grams a day for a 2kg puppy, 800 grams for a 10kg one, and the proportion comes down as the puppy grows.