Natures Deli Grain Free Puppy/Junior review

This one settles in our Good band, in step with the typical puppy kibble rather than above it. The reason is how the recipe is built, and no single failing is to blame. Count the duck meal as the share that actually survives into the finished kibble and you can see how much of the recipe sweet potato and the pea ingredients carry. Pea protein tops up the headline protein from a plant.

Protein and processing and nutritional balance each read Good, with transparency Outstanding, so nothing here is dragging the reading down on its own. The duck itself is described better than most labels manage, and that honesty counts in its favour.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck (35.2%; including duck meal (22.2%), duck (11.1%), duck gravy (1.9%)), dried sweet potato (28%), duck fat, pea protein, dried peas (5.6%), dried beet pulp, dried chick peas (2.8%), brewers' yeast, dried pumpkin (1.9%), minerals, linseed oil, vegetable stock, dried carrot (0.5%), yeast (as a source of mannan- oligosaccharides (prebiotic MOS; 0.23%)), chicory root extract (as a source of fructo-oligosaccharides (prebiotic FOS; 0.23%)), dried ginger, dried rosemary, yucca schidigera (0.023%), glucosamine (0.012%), dried ginger, dried rosemary, yucca schidigera (0.023%), glucosamine (0.012%), dried cranberry, dried dandelion root, dried pomegranate, chondroitin sulphate (0.005%)

Duck arrives in three forms and the label names each share: duck meal at 22.2%, duck at 11.1% and duck gravy at 1.9%. The meal is the part that matters most in a kibble. Its water is already gone, so it carries through to the bag more or less as printed, while the fresh 11.1% shrinks a good deal during cooking. Duck is a well liked, easily digested meat, and as the only animal on the list it gives a real advantage to a pup on one protein.

After the meat, the largest single entry is dried sweet potato at 28%, with dried peas at 5.6%, dried chick peas at 2.8% and beet pulp for fibre behind it. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 37.4% of dry matter, a shade under the 39.0% the typical puppy kibble runs at, so taking the grain free route has not pushed the starch load up here.

Fourth on the list is pea protein, and that deserves a moment. Lifting a protein figure without adding more meat is a common enough move. For amino acid profile and digestibility, though, plant protein does not match meat, so the declared 28% protein is not all doing the same work in a growing pup.

Calcium is declared, which is more than many growth labels manage, and at 1.87% of dry matter it reads as a mineral package built with plenty of margin for bone building. Small and medium pups will take that comfortably. Large and giant breed rearing works to a tighter window than 1.87%, which is why the big pup note above matters. Have a word with your vet if you are raising a giant.

The tail of the list comes with numbers attached, not names alone. MOS at 0.23% and FOS at 0.23% cover the gut, glucosamine at 0.012% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.005% the joints, and yucca schidigera comes in at 0.023%. Vitamin E at 560 mg and vitamin C at 75 mg per kilo cover the antioxidants, and L-carnitine at 150 mg is a thoughtful inclusion in a growth food. The additives also name a live Bacillus subtilis culture, there to steady the gut flora.

Ginger, rosemary, cranberry, dandelion root and pomegranate close the recipe at trace level. Read them as garnish rather than nutrition; this bag stands on its duck and its sweet potato.

Sold in a 2kg bag.

Its own chart begins at 80g to 100g a day for the smallest pups and finishes at 490g to 510g, spread across two to four meals. Where your pup falls on that chart changes month by month, so weigh to their current stage and expected adult size, and do not settle on one figure for good.