Nourish Grain Free Puppy: Chicken With Turkey, Salmon, Sweet Potato & Carrots review

Both of these read as Excellent band foods, a step up from the Good band where the middle of the puppy dry field settles. Transparency reads Outstanding on each recipe and value Excellent, with protein and processing and nutritional balance both at Good.

The lift comes as much from declaration as from recipe. Calcium is printed. Meat percentages are itemised down to the stock, the joint and prebiotic supplements are dosed, and moisture is declared. All of that counts for something in a category where labels are often happy to stay vague.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken, Turkey & Salmon 60% (including Freshly Prepared Chicken 20%, Dried Chicken 14%, Freshly Prepared Turkey 7%, Freshly Prepared Salmon 7%, Dried Turkey 7%, Dried Salmon 3% & Chicken Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (22%), Potato, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Beet Pulp, Minerals, Vitamins, Carrot (0.2%), Peas (0.07%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Vegetable Stock, Nucleotides, FOS (96 mg/ kg), MOS (24 mg/kg)

Each bag leads on a 60% headline and then does the decent thing by splitting it up. The chicken recipe names chicken, turkey and salmon, each in a fresh and a dried form, with a chicken stock behind them. The fish recipe names fresh and dried salmon alongside fresh blue whiting and haddock. Dried meat and fish have already given up their water. Their place on the label understates what they put into the finished kibble.

On the plant side both bags open with sweet potato, then potato, and no cereal appears anywhere. Carbohydrate converts to 41.9% of dry matter in the chicken and 42.0% in the fish, a shade above the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. These are meat led recipes on a working starch base.

Calcium decides whether a growth food can be trusted with a big pup. Both bags print it: 1.3% of dry matter in the chicken and 1.41% in the fish. Growth needs calcium inside a certain range, and both of these are in it. That is why the maker can list them from toy breeds to giants without hedging.

The supplement tail is the same on both and comes dosed rather than name dropped. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane arrive at 170 mg/kg apiece, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. FOS at 96 mg/kg and MOS at 24 mg/kg make the prebiotic pair, and added nucleotides sit alongside them. The fatty acids behind a growing coat and brain come from linseed and a named omega 3 supplement.

Beet pulp does the fibre work in each recipe, and it is gentle stuff that dogs tolerate well. The closing entries are garnish and nothing more: carrot and peas in the chicken bag, asparagus in the fish bag, all at fractions of a percent. Moisture is declared at 8.0% on both. Every dry matter figure on this page therefore comes straight off the label.

The chicken recipe puts three birds and a fish behind one headline. Freshly prepared chicken at 20% leads, with dried chicken at 14% next. Turkey follows fresh and dried at 7% each, then salmon at 7% freshly prepared and 3% dried. Chicken stock closes at 2%. Sweet potato is the largest single plant entry at 22%, with carrot at 0.2% and peas at 0.07% closing the list.

Protein is declared at 29.0% and fat at 15.0%, converting to 31.5% and 16.3% of dry matter, energy reads 384 kcal per 100g, and calcium converts to 1.3% of dry matter. Chicken, turkey and fish all appear on the allergen picture, so this is the broader of the two on that front.

£4.00 a kilo. Bags come in 1.5kg, 6kg and 13.5kg, with a 200g sample as well.

Portions for a puppy shift as quickly as the puppy does, so keep going back to the chart on the bag. Nourish starts its own table at 160g a day for the smallest pups and takes it to 370g for the largest, with a good many sizes between 180g and 200g on the way through.