Scrumbles Puppies & Toys review

Scrumbles Puppies & Toys reads in our Excellent band, one step above the Good band the typical puppy dry food occupies. A high named meat share, declared energy and an additive panel printed in full are what carry it up there. Transparency reads Outstanding, value and nutritional balance Excellent, and protein and processing Good behind them.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Chicken (29% Dehydrated Chicken, 26% Freshly Prepared Chicken, 7% Chicken Fat, 3% Chicken Stock), 18.5% Rice, 10% Oats, 2.5% Dried Alfalfa, 1.5% Salmon Oil, Vitamins & Minerals, 0.7% Whole Linseed, 0.3% Dried Carrot, 0.2% Chicory Extract (source of Prebiotic FOS), 0.1% Yeasts (source of prebiotic MOS), 0.02% Extract of Yucca Schidigera, Dried Spearmint.

Chicken at 65% is split into 29% dehydrated chicken, 26% freshly prepared chicken, 7% chicken fat and 3% chicken stock. It helps that the dehydrated portion leads. Dried chicken went into the mix with its water gone, so its share survives the oven, while fresh chicken gives most of its weight up in baking.

There is no second meat on the list, so a pup held to chicken alone can eat this. Salmon oil at 1.5% is the one exception to hold in mind. Marine omega 3 feeds a growing brain and coat, and this is where it comes from. Fish is in the bowl either way, so a strict fish free plan is a different question.

Rice at 18.5% and oats at 10% do the binding. Oats carry soluble fibre and a decent range of micronutrients. Both grains cook down to a starch that puppies digest easily, and the grain here is doing an honest job.

Scrumbles does its best work in the small print. Dried alfalfa at 2.5% adds fibre and micronutrients, whole linseed at 0.7% adds plant omega 3 and dried carrot at 0.3% brings antioxidants. Chicory extract at 0.2% and yeasts at 0.1% are declared for the prebiotic FOS and MOS they supply, with a trace of yucca and a little dried spearmint closing the list.

The additive panel is published in full rather than summarised. Vitamins A, D3 and E are dosed, a complete set of trace elements sits behind them, and selenium comes as a selenised yeast, which is the form many owners look for. Enterococcus faecium is named as a strain and listed as a gut flora stabiliser. Natural mixed tocopherols from the vitamin E family do the preserving.

On the analysis, protein is declared at 34.0%, fat at 16.5%, fibre at 2.5% and ash at 6.5%, with energy at 399 kcal per 100g, comfortably above the 376 typical of a puppy dry food. Moisture goes undeclared, so the dry matter figures here take the 8% a dry food is normally reckoned to hold. On that basis protein converts to 37.0% and carbohydrate to 35.3%, under the 39.0% typical. Calcium does not appear anywhere, which on a food written for toy and small pups is less pressing than it would be on a large breed recipe, though it would still be good to see.

£4.93 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 7.5kg and 15kg bags.

Its chart covers the first stretch, from 1 to 3 months, running from 35g a day for a half kilo pup up to 198g for one of five kilos. After that you keep stepping the amount up as your pup grows into the next line of the guide.