Optimum Pet Health Puppy Small-Medium Breeds review

This one lands in our Good band, level with the middle of the puppy dry field. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance Excellent and value Good, and it is protein and processing, the one pillar held to Average, that keeps the band where it is. The reading reflects a label that promises well and then does not quite hold together. The chicken declaration's parts do not add up to its own heading, and the printed list reads as though it went to press unchecked. The recipe underneath looks capable, which is why the notes below repay a full read.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (Of Which Fresh Chicken Meat 25% And Dried Chicken 16% (50%), Dried Potato Flakes, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Chicken Fat (10%), Chicken Gravy (3%), Dried Beet Pulp, Linseed, Fish Oil (2%), Dried Antarctic Krill (1%), Minerals (Of Which Sodium Hexametaphosphate), Carob Flower, Dried Brewer's Yeast, Dried Chicory (A Natural Source Of Fos And Insulin) (1%), Yeast Cell Wall (A Natural Source Of Mos And Beta Glucans) (1%), Gos (Galacto - Oligosaccharides) (1%), Dried Curcuma Longa, Ascophyllum Nodosum, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate, Msm (Methylsulfonylmethane), Yucca Schidigera, Dried Melissa Officinalis, Dried Thymus Vulgaris, Dried Fenugreek, Olive Powder, Dried Rosehip, Tyndallized Lactobacillus Helveticus

The first thing to sort out is the chicken. The pack heads its list with 50% chicken and then breaks that down into 25% fresh chicken meat and 16% dried chicken, with the bracket around the breakdown never closed. Those two parts do not add up to the heading. Chicken is plainly the dominant ingredient and the only meat in the recipe, but the precise share is not something a buyer can settle from the pack.

Everything else animal here is chicken too. Chicken fat at 10% is the heaviest fat inclusion in the maker's puppy range and chicken gravy at 3% sits behind it, both named and not left as generic animal fat. The marine entries are the exception. Fish oil at 2% is on the list, with dried Antarctic krill at 1% behind it, both there for the long chain omega 3 that young brains and coats use. That is enough to rule out a fish-free plan.

The starch sits behind the meat and stays free of cereal: dried potato flakes, dried sweet potato and green beans, with dried beet pulp alongside for fibre. Carbohydrate converts to 30.7% of dry matter, well under the 39.0% a typical puppy dry food carries, and moisture is declared at 9.0%, so that conversion works off a printed figure.

Nothing else in the range is this rich. Protein of 32.0% converts to 35.2% of dry matter and fat of 20.0% to 22.0%. That is the shape a small, fast-moving pup with a small stomach needs, since every mouthful has to do more work. A steadier dog of the same size will simply want the portion trimmed to match.

Calcium converts to 1.1% of dry matter, inside the window growth should be reared to. This bag is aimed below the large-breed end, where the calcium question bites hardest, but printing the figure at all is the mark of a label that takes the growth job seriously.

Sodium hexametaphosphate appears in the mineral line, and it is there for the teeth. It binds the calcium in saliva that would otherwise harden into tartar. At the levels used in pet food it is a common and useful inclusion in a young mouth that is still changing over.

Gut and joint support are set out entry by entry. Dried chicory at 1% brings inulin, yeast cell wall at 1% adds MOS and beta glucans, and GOS gets a 1% line of its own. Glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulphate and MSM follow, none of them with a dose in print. Ascophyllum nodosum, yucca, turmeric, thyme, melissa, fenugreek, olive powder, rosehip and a tyndallised Lactobacillus close the list at garnish level.

The printing is where this label lets itself down. Beyond the unclosed bracket on the chicken, chicory is given as a source of Fos and Insulin where inulin is meant, and carob flour is written as carob flower. None of it changes what is in the bag, but a growth food is exactly the place a buyer wants the small print to be right first time.

The added panel itself is properly dosed. Vitamin E at 450 mg and vitamin C at 100 mg are quoted next to declared vitamin A, vitamin D3, taurine and selenium. The trace minerals are given as sulphates and as amino acid chelates.

£3.20 a kilo, in 2kg and 15kg bags.

The right daily amount for a pup changes almost monthly. Let the bag's chart set a starting point for their age and expected adult size, then adjust to the dog standing in front of you.