Nature's Protection Superior Care White Dogs Junior Small & Mini Breed review

This small breed recipe lands in our Average band, one step below the puppy dry field's midpoint. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average, while transparency reads Excellent. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 41.2% of dry matter against the 39.0% typical, and that is the clearest reason it does not press higher. A growth food earns most of its standing on the meat side.

Ingredients, as declared: 42 % white fish (dry and finely ground), dehydrated potato pulp, sweet potato, peas, bird fat, krill flour (min. 4 %), sugar beet pulp, salmon oil, dynamic micronized clinoptilolite (1 %), linaza, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), cassava extract, green tea, dry calendula (lutein source).

White fish at 42% leads the list in dry and finely ground form. The water comes out before the ingredient is weighed. That makes the printed 42% a fair guide to how much fish reaches the finished kibble, and a fresh fish headline cannot say the same. The trade-off is in the naming. White fish is a category name, and it covers cod, haddock and pollock along with their relatives. The label tells you the type of fish without telling you which.

Krill flour at a declared minimum of 4% adds a second marine protein. It is milled whole, so it brings oils and pigment as well as protein. It also puts crustacean on the allergen picture.

No cereal appears on the list. The plant base is dehydrated potato pulp, with peas and sweet potato alongside. Sugar beet pulp brings the kind of fibre most dogs handle comfortably, and the fructooligosaccharides behind it work on the gut bacteria, not on the dog.

The functional tail is short and readable. Dynamic micronised clinoptilolite at 1% is a volcanic mineral used as a binder, green tea contributes its catechin antioxidants, and dried calendula is named on the label as the lutein source. The linseed listed just after the salmon oil appears under its Spanish name on the pack, but it is the familiar flax seed and it is there for omega 3.

On the analysis, protein reads 26.0% and fat 15.0% as fed, converting to 28.6% and 16.5% of dry matter on the declared 9.0% moisture. Ash at 9.0% points to a generous mineral package, and yet no calcium figure is printed to show what the growth-critical part of it looks like. Energy is our estimate at 350 kcal per 100g rather than a declared figure, so read it as an indication of how far a scoop goes.

£6.50 a kilo, sold in a 1.5kg bag.

No puppy has one fixed daily amount. Read the pack's chart against your dog's age and the size they should reach, then adjust in small steps as the weeks go by.