Nature's Protection Superior Care Red Coat Junior Small Breed review

Our Good band is where this junior kibble settles, level with the middle of the puppy dry field. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance and value both read Good and protein and processing reads Average, which leaves an open label as the strongest thing here. The starch load helps its case: carbohydrate converts to an estimated 35.7% of dry matter against 39.0% for the typical puppy kibble. Energy at an estimated 368 kcal per 100g lands just under the field's usual 376.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 46% (dry and finely ground), dehydrated potato pulp, peas, sweet potato, bird fat, krill flour (4%), sugar beet pulp, salmon oil, monocalcic phosphate, linen, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), Dynamic micinophylite (1%), cassava extract, dry blueberry, dry calendula (lutein source)

Salmon at 46% is listed dry and finely ground. That detail is what makes the headline worth having. The fish is dried, so its water has gone before it reaches the mixer. That 46% therefore lands in the finished kibble near enough as printed, with no oven shrinkage to allow for.

Krill flour at 4% is the more unusual entry. It is a small marine crustacean milled whole, so protein and marine oils come with it, and so does the reddish pigment astaxanthin. That fits a recipe written for dogs with warm-toned coats.

The plant side is led by dehydrated potato pulp, with peas and sweet potato behind it and not a cereal in sight. Peas in this position are doing useful work, adding fibre along with a share of plant protein. They are held well short of the level at which a legume starts to look like the main event. Sugar beet pulp adds a steady fibre most dogs handle without fuss, and fructooligosaccharides sit alongside it as food for the gut's own bacteria.

Bird fat is the one entry naming no species, a gap that matters if you are reading this label for an exclusion diet. Salmon oil behind it does name its source, and between them the fat figure reaches 18.0% as fed, or 19.8% of dry matter.

The range makes its pitch at the tail of the list. L-Tyrosine at 500 mg per kilo is the amino acid the body builds coat pigment from. L-Cystine at 1 g per kilo is a building block of the keratin that hair is made of, and L-Tryptophan joins them at 500 mg. Dynamic micronised clinoptilolite at 1% is a natural volcanic mineral, used there as a binder. Cassava extract closes the list, with dried blueberry and dried calendula alongside it, the calendula named on the pack as the lutein source.

The analysis prints protein at 29.0% and fat at 18.0% as fed, converting to 31.9% and 19.8% of dry matter on the declared 9.0% moisture. Calcium is what it does not print. On a growth food that number is the one owners most want in front of them, particularly since monocalcic phosphate shows calcium is being added deliberately. The energy figure of 368 kcal per 100g is our estimate rather than a declaration.

£7.50 a kilo, sold in a 1.5kg bag.

A junior dog's daily amount is a moving target, never a fixed one. Let the pack's growth chart set the portion, and let the ribs you can just feel be the final word.