Naturo Puppy Grain Free Pouches: Chicken With Potato & Vegetables review

These pouches take our Good band, one step behind the typical wet puppy food in Excellent, so read the result as a sound entry in a category that is strong to begin with.

Transparency comes back Outstanding and nutritional balance Excellent, with protein and processing in our Good band. That is the profile of a label that names its parts precisely and puts genuine meat behind them. It is exactly what a small pouch of puppy food should look like when you turn it over.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 65% (Including 5% Chicken Broth), Vegetables 20% (from 3.9% Dried Potato, Carrots and Peas), Minerals, Sunflower Oil 0.75%, Salmon Oil 0.3%, Tomato Powder 0.15%, Dried Kelp 0.08%, Dried Cranberry 0.05%, Dried Blueberry 0.05%, Dried Chicory Root 0.04%, Yeast 0.04%, Dried Basil 0.016%, Yucca Powder 0.01%

Chicken at 65% is the whole meat content. The label says openly that 5% of that is chicken broth. Broth carries water and flavour rather than much protein, so the meat that really counts is a little under the headline, and our own estimate of the meat share lands at 60% of the pouch. Protein converts to 33.3% of dry matter, which is a solid reading once you remember how much of a wet food is water by design.

Vegetables are declared as a 20% group, with the label explaining that the figure comes from 3.9% dried potato together with carrots and peas. Dried potato takes water back on during cooking, which is how a small dried inclusion becomes a much larger cooked share. Carbohydrate is estimated at 16.6% of dry matter against 13.6% for the typical puppy wet food, so the vegetables are doing a bit more than garnishing.

Two oils split the fat work. Sunflower oil at 0.75% is one of the gentler plant oils and carries natural vitamin E with it. The marine omega 3 fats come from salmon oil at 0.3%. Those are the fats a growing brain and coat lean on. That salmon oil is what puts fish on the allergen picture, in a recipe where chicken is the only meat.

Precision runs right to the tail of the list. Tomato powder is at 0.15%, dried kelp at 0.08%, dried cranberry and dried blueberry at 0.05% each, dried chicory root and yeast at 0.04% apiece, dried basil at 0.016% and yucca powder at 0.01%. The chicory root is the useful one, since it carries inulin that feeds gut bacteria. At these inclusions, though, the whole group is a finishing flourish and no more.

Minerals are listed as a single entry and ash converts to 13.0% of dry matter, so the mineral load is there. The added panel is printed per kilo, with vitamin A at 1,500IU, vitamin D3 at 250IU and vitamin E at 40mg. Zinc follows at 22mg, iron at 15mg, manganese at 5mg, copper at 4.50mg, iodine at 0.75mg and selenium at 0.04mg. What is not printed anywhere is calcium, which for a growth food is the figure most worth having, even in a pouch aimed at small breeds.

£6.67 a kilo, sold as 8 x 150g pouches.

The label's guide runs from 300g a day for a 5kg pup to 975g for a pup in the middle of its chart. One pouch a day is never the answer for long, because a growing dog's ration climbs steadily. Work from the chart instead, matching your pup's weight today to the adult size you expect.