Nourish Grain Free Puppy: Salmon With Haddock, Blue Whiting, Sweet Potato & Asparagus 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: Salmon, Haddock & Blue Whiting 60% (Freshly Prepared Salmon 21%, Dried Salmon 16%, Freshly Prepared Blue Whiting 11%, Freshly Prepared Haddock 10% & Salmon Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (20%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Peas (6%), Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Vitamins, Vegetable Stock, Asparagus (0.2%), Glucosamine (170 mg/ kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), 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 fish recipe keeps entirely to the sea. The headline is carried by salmon twice over, freshly prepared at 21% and dried at 16%. Freshly prepared blue whiting at 11%, freshly prepared haddock at 10% and a salmon stock at 2% complete the 60%. Sweet potato comes in at 20%, peas at 6% and asparagus at 0.2%.

The analysis reads a touch leaner than its stablemate, with protein at 28.0% and fat at 13.0% converting to 30.4% and 14.1% of dry matter, fibre at 4.0% and energy at 359 kcal per 100g. Calcium on this recipe works through to 1.41% of dry matter. Fish is the only animal group on the allergen picture, so this is the bag for a household keeping birds out of the bowl.

£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.