Nature's Way Grain Free Puppy & Small Dog review

Our scoring puts this in the Good band. The typical adult dry food reaches our Good band too, so the two finish level, and a 65% chicken declaration written out part by part is much of the reason it holds its place. That declaration is why transparency reads Outstanding.

The numbers follow the label. Protein converts to 34.8% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 38.6%, where adult dry food usually runs 46.2%, and ash is modest at 7.0%. The one real gap is the label's silence on calcium. That is the figure a growth food is normally judged on, and it is why we would keep this to the small breeds on the front of the bag.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Chicken consisting: Chicken (31%), Dried Chicken (29%), Chicken Fat (3%), Chicken Liver (2%), Sweet Potato (19%), Potato (19%), Beet Fibre, Linseed, Sunflower Oil, Salmon Oil, Minerals, Vitamins, Glucosamine (.017%), MSM (.017%), Chlondroitin (.0125%), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Mixed Herbs consisting: Thyme, Majoram, Sage, Basil, Parsley, Oregano, Prebiotic MOS, Prebiotic FOS.

The 65% breaks into 31% fresh chicken and 29% dried chicken, plus chicken fat at 3% and chicken liver at 2%. The fresh and dried entries sit nearly level, and that is the point. Fresh chicken loses nearly all its water in the oven. Dried chicken arrives without it, so pairing the two keeps the finished protein high. At 32% as fed, 34.8% of dry matter, it plainly worked.

Sweet potato and potato at 19% each carry the starch, with beet fibre behind them. That is a deliberately even split, and it gives a small kibble enough structure to hold together without any cereal at all.

Chicken liver at 2% is there for two reasons. Few natural sources of B vitamins, copper and iron beat it, and it is also the entry that makes a picky puppy finish the bowl.

The joint three are unusual on a food for young dogs, and small breeds are the ones that tend to need that sort of help as the years go on. Glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin each carry their own declared level rather than sheltering under a general claim. Worth saying plainly: glucosamine is usually made from shellfish and chondroitin from cattle cartilage. A strict elimination plan has to take them into account.

Linseed and sunflower oil supply plant omegas and vitamin E, with salmon oil adding the marine form of omega 3 that goes straight to work on a coat and a developing brain. Omega 6 is declared at 3.0% and omega 3 at 0.8%. Prebiotic MOS and FOS close the recipe out, and they feed the gut bacteria that settle a young digestion.

The trace minerals all carry printed doses, sensibly matched to one another. Copper, iron and zinc all sit at 48 mg per kilo, manganese at 33 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.19 mg. Vitamin E is declared at 95 mg. Ash comes in at 7.0%, on the low side for a kibble, which says the mineral load has been measured rather than piled in.

£8 a kilo, sold in a 5kg bag.

As a rough guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would get through about 224 grams a day, on the standard maintenance estimate of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That is near enough £1.79 a day. Weight for weight, a puppy eats considerably more than an adult, and a small breed adult a good deal less. Use the maker's growth chart and your hands on the ribs to settle the daily amount.