Simpsons Premium Puppy review

This kibble finishes in our Good band. The middle of the puppy dry field is there too, so they are close company, with Simpsons a little ahead of the mark. Protein and processing sits at Good alongside nutritional balance and value, with transparency Outstanding.

The recipe's shape earns that position. Dried meat opens the list, the starch load runs a shade lighter than the field average, and the calcium figure is actually printed. The supplement panel is what holds it back. A long run of useful extras is named there without a single quantity beside it.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Chicken (min 34%), Brown Rice (min 26%), Chicken Fat (9%), Oats, Maize, Dried Egg, Beet Pulp, Potato Protein, Chicken Gravy (3%), Brewers Yeast, Salmon Oil, Minerals, Linseeds, Vitamins, Yucca Extract, Cranberries, Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), Nucleotides, L-Carnitine, Glucosamine, MSM, Chondroitin.

Dried chicken at a minimum of 34% leads the label, and the dried form is the part worth decoding. The water comes out of that meat before it reaches the mixer. Nothing shrinks away in the oven, and the 34% on the label is close to the 34% in the finished kibble. Protein is declared at 30.0%, which converts to 32.6% of dry matter, a respectable figure for a growth kibble at this stage of life.

Most of the binding is done by brown rice at a minimum of 26%, with oats and maize behind it. The cereal base is a conventional one, and it works. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 34.5% of dry matter against 39.0% for the typical puppy dry food. The meat is not being padded out. The fibre comes from beet pulp, gentle and well tolerated, at 3.75% crude fibre as fed.

Halfway down the run sits potato protein. It is what potato processing leaves behind, and its job is to lift the protein total. A plant protein does not match meat on quality or digestibility. Read it as a topper and not as part of the meat content. It sits well down the order here, which is the right place for it.

Chicken fat at 9% is the main energy carrier, and it names its bird. Plenty of labels do not. Salmon oil and linseeds supply the omega 3 side, one from the sea and one from a seed, and between them they cover a growing coat and brain. No meat but chicken goes into the bag, yet fish still shows up in the allergen picture, and the salmon oil is the reason.

Calcium is where a growth food really gets tested, and this one prints its figure. At 1.37% of dry matter it falls where growth wants it, and it is steady enough for a large breed puppy as well as a small one. Rearing a big pup on too much calcium is one of the oldest mistakes in the book, so a printed, in range number is worth having.

A growth checklist is what the tail of the list amounts to: brewers yeast, yucca extract and cranberries, then MOS, FOS and nucleotides for the gut, then L-Carnitine, glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin. Every one of them is a sensible inclusion. Not one of them carries a quantity, and neither do the Vitamins and Minerals lines above them. What went in is on show; how much went in is not. The 369 kcal per 100g is our own estimate, and it lands just under the 376 typical of a puppy dry food.

£5.11 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags, with a 2 x 12kg option as well.

A puppy's ration keeps moving, up through the fastest weeks and back down as growth slows. Let the chart on the bag be your reference. The chart starts at 30g a day for the smallest pups and tops out at 295g a day, and where you sit inside that should come down to your pup's shape.