Ruff's Recipes Puppy Dry Food review

Ruff's Recipes Puppy Dry Food comes out in our Good band, level with a typical puppy dry food. Transparency reads Outstanding and value Good, with nutritional balance also Good and protein and processing Average, so the label is where this one really stands out.

The strengths are real: calcium declared and in range, a joint blend with its doses printed, and a list itemised from the alfalfa down to the valerian root. The balance of the bag is what holds it where it is. There is a 38% meat block, a starch estimate running above the puppy typical, and a fresh salmon headline that shrinks once the water goes.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon & Chicken (38%) (including Freshly Prepared Salmon 30%, Chicken Gravy 4%, Chicken Liver 4%), Dried Sweet Potato, Dried Whole Peas, Poultry Oil, Brewer's Yeast, Potato Protein, Minerals, Alfalfa (2%), Salmon Oil (1%), Dried Parsnip, Dried Carrot (0.5% equivalent to 4% Carrot),Flaxseed (0.5%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.3%), Dried Herbs & Botanicals (0.2%) (Seaweed 0.05%, Nettle 0.02%, Rosemary 0.015%, Bay 0.015%, Dill 0.015%, Mint 0.015%, Oregano 0.015%, Thyme 0.015%, Chamomile 0.01%, Turmeric 0.01%, Dried Reishi Mushroom 0.005%, Valerian Root 0.005%), Dried Apple, Joint Support Blend (0.1%) (including Glucosamine 0.034%, MSM 0.034%, Chondroitin 0.024%), Dried Blueberry.

The meat block is declared as Salmon & Chicken at 38%, then broken out into freshly prepared salmon at 30%, chicken gravy at 4% and chicken liver at 4%. That breakdown is genuinely useful. The salmon is weighed fresh with its water still in it, so what reaches the finished kibble is less than 30% suggests. Liver is a nutrient dense addition that dogs find hard to resist.

The starch base that follows is dried sweet potato and dried whole peas, with cereal absent altogether. Carbohydrate is estimated at 44.0% of dry matter. A puppy dry food typically runs 39.0%, so this is a kibble whose middle does plenty of work. Fibre at 3.3% of dry matter and alfalfa at 2% keep things moving.

On a growth bag calcium is the figure that matters most, and this one prints it. It converts to 1.2% of dry matter, inside the window for puppies of any expected adult size. That is why the maker can put toy through to giant on the pack and mean it.

Poultry oil and salmon oil at 1% cover the fats between them. The long chain omega 3s that growing brains and coats need come from the salmon oil. The poultry oil names no particular bird, so allergy minded owners should read it together with the chicken already in the meat block.

Brewer's yeast is a natural store of B vitamins. Potato protein does a job that meat does better, and the two sit either side of the mineral line. Chicory root extract at 0.3% comes further down for prebiotic FOS, flaxseed at 0.5% adds plant omega 3, and dried parsnip, carrot, apple and blueberry bring small amounts of fruit and vegetable.

The joint blend totals only 0.1% but is broken out honestly, with glucosamine and MSM at 0.034% apiece and chondroitin at 0.024%. Printed doses on a puppy food are still the exception. The amino acid line is unusually full as well, with methionine at 2000 mg and taurine at 1000 mg per kg ahead of arginine and tyrosine. The trace minerals arrive as chelates, a form dogs absorb readily.

£5.00 a kilo in the 12kg bag and £7.00 a kilo in the 2kg.

How much a puppy eats climbs steeply and then falls back as growth slows. Go by the bag's own chart, adjusted for the way your pup fills out. Its own guide runs from 30 grams a day for the smallest pups up to 630 grams for the biggest.