Pooch & Mutt Superfoods Puppy Dry Food review

Our Good band covers this kibble and the typical puppy dry food alike, and inside it this one sits a little clear of the field's middle. Transparency is Outstanding here, while protein and processing and nutritional balance both come back Good. The split makes sense once you look at the panel: the meat sourcing is tidy, and the starch load runs a shade heavier than the category's middle.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Protein (34 %), Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes (19 %), Chicken Fat (9 %), Hydrolysed Chicken Liver (4 %), Dried Pumpkin (4 %), Dried Apple Pulp (2 %), Linseed (2 %), Salmon Oil (2 %), Hydrolysed Yeasts (1 % - a source of inositol and amino acids), Psyllium Husk and Seeds (0.7 %), Microalgae Oil (0.5 %), Carrots (0.4 %), Sodium Chloride (0.4 %), Potassium Chloride (0.4 %), Dried Chamomile (0.2 %), Dried Cranberries (0.2 %), Dried Seaweed (0.2 %), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.15 %), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.1 %), Glucosamine (0.1 %), Dried Blackcurrant (0.05 %), Dried Spinach (0.05 %), Dried Rosehips (0.05 %), Dried Pomegranate (0.05 %), Dried Kale (0.05 %), Mojave Yucca (0.01 %).

Chicken protein at 34% opens the list, and the wording matters. This is chicken already dried and concentrated. A fresh meat headline shrinks in the oven, and this declared figure carries most of the way through to the finished kibble. Chicken fat at 9% and hydrolysed chicken liver at 4% follow it, which keeps every animal entry on the label tied to the same bird.

Potatoes lead the plant side with sweet potatoes declared at 19%. No cereal appears on the list at all. Sweet potato is the more generous of the pair, bringing fibre and vitamin A along with its starch. Carbohydrate estimates at 41.3% of dry matter against 39.0% for the typical puppy dry food, so even with no grain in it, starch still carries a fair part of this bowl.

A growth food earns its keep on the mineral line, and this one prints what an owner needs to see. Calcium at 1.44% of dry matter sits inside the window growth is fed to. It stays low enough that a pup destined to be big can be reared on it without the usual worry about oversupplying a fast building skeleton. Crude ash at 7.6% of dry matter puts that in context, a mineral package sized for construction and not a heavy one.

Fibre arrives from more than one direction. Dried pumpkin at 4% and dried apple pulp at 2% share the work with psyllium husk at 0.7%. The psyllium is the soluble part, the entry most likely to firm up a loose puppy stool. MOS at 0.15% with FOS at 0.1% sit behind them as prebiotics, food for the gut bacteria and not for the pup directly.

Linseed at 2% covers the plant end of omega 3, with salmon oil at 2% joined by microalgae oil at 0.5% at the marine end. Brain and coat both draw hard on those fats while a pup is growing. Salmon oil is also the reason fish appears on the allergen picture where chicken is the only meat. Glucosamine at 0.1% is an early nod towards joints, handy for a pup with plenty of growing still to do.

The range takes its name from the superfood tail: chamomile, cranberries and seaweed at 0.2% each, then five more at 0.05%, blackcurrant, spinach, rosehips, pomegranate and kale, closing with mojave yucca at 0.01%. None of those inclusions is doing heavy lifting, and it does not have to. The analysis is the stronger argument. Protein at 28.0% and fat at 16.0% convert to 31.1% and 17.8% of dry matter, and the maker declares an energy figure of 385 kcal per 100g rather than leaving it to an estimate.

£5.20 a kilo, with 1.5kg and 7.5kg bags to choose from.

A growth food has no fixed daily amount to quote, since what a pup needs at four months is not what it needs at nine. Use the bag's chart for the grown up weight your pup is heading towards, and keep checking that you can still feel a waist under your hands.