Sausage Dog Sanctuary Food Grain-Free Puppy: Duck With Turkey, Sweet Potato, Dill & Camomile review

All three of these recipes read in our Good band, with barely anything between them. The typical puppy dry food belongs to the Good band as well, and the three sit close together at the upper end of it, the chicken recipe furthest along.

Transparency reads Outstanding across the three, and value sits on Good with protein and processing beside it. Nutritional balance is the only pillar that moves, Good on the duck and Average on the other two, so this is a range built to one standard.

Ingredients, as declared: 60% Turkey & Duck (including Freshly Prepared Turkey 32%, Dried Turkey 18%, Turkey Fat 5%, Freshly Prepared Duck 4%, and Turkey Stock 1%) Sweet Potato (20%), Potato Protein, Peas (4%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Linseed, Minerals, Vitamins, Omega 3 Supplement, Vegetable Stock, Camomile (0.3%), Dill (0.3%), Nucleotides, Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), FOS (96 mg/kg), MOS (24 mg/kg).

Every recipe here opens on the same structure: a named meat or fish block declared at 60%, then split into freshly prepared and dried portions with a stock behind them. That split is worth understanding. Freshly prepared meat still holds its water and gives most of it up in the oven. The dried portion has already parted with its own. That is why the dried figures matter more in the finished kibble than their size suggests.

In all three the starch begins with sweet potato and continues with potato, and no cereal appears on the labels. Beet pulp supplies a steady, well tolerated fibre alongside, and peas appear in all three in quantities that vary by recipe.

The fats a growing coat and brain need come from linseed and an omega 3 supplement. That supplement is not sourced on the label. The poultry recipes name no fish in their meat blocks, so a household keeping a pup strictly away from fish should confirm where those omegas come from.

The joint pack runs across the whole range at the same quantities, and they are printed rather than implied: glucosamine at 170 mg/kg, methylsulfonylmethane at 170 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Starting joint support young makes obvious sense for a long backed breed, and these are quantities that do something rather than decorate the list.

Gut support comes from fructooligosaccharides at 96 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 24 mg/kg, with added nucleotides behind them. The pairing is prebiotic, food for the good bacteria lower down.

Where these labels run short is the mineral end. Vitamins and minerals appear as two bare words with nothing published behind them, and no calcium figure is given at all. For a pup that will finish small, that gap matters less than it would for a big one. Calcium governs how a skeleton is put together, and printing it would settle the question for every buyer at once.

Each recipe closes with a short run of named extras, from carrot and asparagus through to camomile and dill. Read them as trimming. These recipes stand on the meat and fish that head each list.

The recipe wearing the duck name is in practice a turkey recipe with duck in support. Turkey leads the 60% block, 32% of it freshly prepared and 18% dried. Behind that sit turkey fat at 5%, freshly prepared duck at 4% and turkey stock at 1%. If duck is what you are after, read the composition before the front of the bag. Potato protein and peas at 4% join sweet potato at 20%, and camomile and dill at 0.3% each round it off.

On paper this is the richest of the three, with protein at 30.0% and fat at 18.0%, or 32.6% and 19.6% of dry matter, and the lightest on starch at 35.3% of dry matter. Energy is an estimate here at 372 kcal per 100g.

£6.17 to £6.33 a kilo depending on the recipe, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

No daily amount stays fixed while a dog is growing, so set the portion from the bag's chart and from the shape of your pup between ribs and hips as the weeks pass.