Platinum Puppy Dry review

Our reading places this kibble in the Excellent band, a step above the Good band a typical puppy dry food occupies. The pillars pull apart here. Transparency reads Outstanding on a meat led list where every entry is named, and protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good. The printed analysis holds those two: 27.0% protein is a modest headline for a growth food, and the meat share only shows itself once you convert to dry matter.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken meat 73 %, broken rice, fish*, apple pulp*, salmon oil (omega-3), brewer's yeast*, flaxseed oil (omega-3), olive oil, potassium chloride. (*dried, cold-pressed, virgin)

Fresh chicken meat at 73% is a headline share, and it needs decoding rather than taking at face value. Fresh meat is mostly water, so what survives the cooking is a good deal less than the number implies. The rest of the label is short enough that the chicken is genuinely doing the feeding all the same, and the dry matter protein of 33.3% bears that out.

Broken rice is the only grain, and the only significant starch. Broken grains are simply the smaller pieces left by milling, no different nutritionally from whole ones. Rice sits among the gentler cereals for a young gut. It does mean grain free is off the table here.

The fish, apple pulp and brewer's yeast are all marked as dried. The fish names no species, which is the one place this otherwise specific list turns vague. With salmon oil further down the recipe, there is no using this food to keep a pup away from fish. Apple pulp brings a mild fibre and brewer's yeast a natural spread of B vitamins along with a little more protein.

Fats come from three named sources, with no blanket term among them. Salmon oil and flaxseed oil supply omega 3 from marine and plant sides, olive oil adds its antioxidants, and potassium chloride closes the list as a straightforward mineral top up.

The moisture is the figure that changes how you read everything else. At 19.0% this kibble carries roughly twice the water of a conventional one, so the as fed analysis reads low. Protein of 27.0% becomes 33.3% of dry matter, fat of 16.0% becomes 19.8% and ash of 7.9% becomes 9.8%. The carbohydrate estimate converts to 34.6% of dry matter, comfortably under the 39.0% a puppy kibble typically runs, so the starch load really is light.

Calcium is declared, which is the first thing to want on a growth food, and it converts to 1.85% of dry matter. A toy, small or medium pup will use that mineral supply. For a large or giant breed puppy it runs past where rearing plans are normally set. The pack offers the food across every size, so have that conversation with your vet before it becomes the main bowl.

The added panel is fully dosed and printed, with vitamins A, D3 and E all declared and E at 150 mg per kilogram. The trace elements are given in the same detail: zinc at 150 mg, iron at 75 mg, manganese at 40 mg, copper at 19 mg, iodine at 3 mg and selenium at 0.2 mg.

The regular pieces come in 1.5kg and 5kg bags, with the larger quantities built from 5kg units up to 30kg. The mini pieces are sold in 900g bags, singly or in twos and threes.

A growing pup's portion is never settled for long. Read the amount off the chart for their weight that week, and let their shape under your hands make the final call.