Nature's Variety Healthy Grains Puppy Medium / Maxi: Chicken review

Our Good band holds this recipe, and the puppy kibble field's midpoint lands in the same band. This food keeps company with the norm. Nutritional balance reads Excellent and transparency Outstanding, with protein and processing the quieter reading at Average. The build explains the placing well enough. What earns it the position is named chicken in two forms at the top of the list, plus a lighter than average starch load. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 34.2% of dry matter against 39.0% for the field. What keeps it there is plant protein sitting high in the list, and an analysis that stops short of declaring moisture or calcium.

Ingredients, as declared: Deboned chicken meat* (20%), dried chicken protein (18%), dried peas* (15%), maize protein, brown rice* (7%), poultry fat* (6.5%), oats* (6.5%), whole barley*, hydrolysed animal proteins (poultry, pork, fish) (4%), minerals, fish oil* (1%), dried carrot* (0.5% equivalent to 4% of fresh carrot), dried apple* (0.3% equivalent to 2% fresh apple), dried seaweed (kelp)* (0.01%), dried rosemary* (0.01%). *Natural ingredients

Chicken arrives twice and both entries are named. Deboned chicken meat at 20% is the fresh form, so most of its weight is water that cooks away. Dried chicken protein at 18% went in dry, and it carries close to its full weight into the finished kibble. Read together, the dried entry is doing more of the heavy lifting than the order of the list suggests.

Dried peas at 15% and maize protein come next, and both deserve a moment. Peas bring fibre and micronutrients along with a useful share of plant protein, while maize protein is a concentrate included largely for the protein it carries. Declared protein of 32.0%, or 34.8% of dry matter, is therefore a total with a plant contribution inside it, not a pure measure of the meat.

The grains are the point of the range and they are sensible ones. Brown rice at 7%, oats at 6.5% and whole barley are wholesome cereals that most puppies digest comfortably. They keep carbohydrate to an estimated 34.2% of dry matter, under the 39.0% the typical puppy kibble carries.

Poultry fat at 6.5% gives the family of birds and not the species, and the hydrolysed animal proteins at 4% are declared as poultry, pork and fish. Neither is a problem for an ordinary puppy, and both matter to an owner running a genuine exclusion trial. Fish oil at 1% is the clearest of the fats, and long chain omega 3 is what it brings. A developing brain and coat both draw on that.

The extras at the end are small and honestly measured. Dried carrot at 0.5% is described as the equivalent of 4% fresh carrot, dried apple at 0.3% stands for 2% fresh, and kelp with rosemary come in at 0.01% each. Treat these as flourishes and let the meat and the grain do the arguing.

The analysis prints protein at 32.0%, fat at 19.0%, fibre at 2.5% and ash at 7.0%, and then stops. Moisture is not declared, so the dry matter figures here work from the usual 8% assumption for a kibble, and calcium is not declared either. That calcium line is the one anybody rearing a big puppy really wants to see. A big breed claim needs that number, and the label does not print it. Ring the maker for it before a giant pup goes on this food. Energy at 384 kcal per 100g is our estimate.

Sold in 3kg and 10kg bags.

No other stage of life changes the daily amount as fast as growth. Work from the feeding chart on the bag, matched to your pup's age and target adult weight, and re-check it every fortnight.