Step Up Dry Food Puppy review

This one settles in our Good band, alongside the middle of the puppy kibble market. Protein and processing reads Average with nutritional balance a step up in Good, while transparency reads Outstanding and value Good. That is fair enough: the meat is mostly meal-form poultry with only part of it named, and the starch load runs above the puppy average.

What a band cannot show is that the growing-up essentials are all covered. Calcium is declared and in range, taurine is dosed at 500 mg, and the joint pair carries printed figures. For an owner who wants those boxes ticked without fuss, that counts for a great deal.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry Meal (26% incl. Chicken 20.5%), Rice, Whole Grain Barley (15%), Maize, Poultry Fat (6%), Dried Peas (5%), Whole Grain Oats (4.5%), Beet Pulp, Turkey Meal (4%), Poultry Gravy, Dried Apple (1% equivalent to 6.5% Apple), Dried Sweet Potato (1% equivalent to 3% Sweet Potato)Salmon Oil (0.5%),Minerals, Dried Chicory, Glucosamine (0.025%), Chondroitin (0.015%)

Poultry meal at 26% opens the list, and the label goes one better than most by saying that 20.5% of the bag is chicken specifically. Meal has already been dried before it goes in, so those shares carry through to the finished kibble and do not shrink in the oven. Turkey meal at 4% adds a second named bird behind it.

The rest of the poultry is where the label loosens its grip. Poultry fat at 6% and poultry gravy name no species, and the word covers any domestic bird. Anyone running a strict exclusion diet has less to work with than the chicken figure first suggests.

Rice leads the starch with whole grain barley at 15%, then maize and whole grain oats at 4.5% behind it. The whole grain forms bring fibre and micronutrients that refining strips out, and beet pulp with dried peas at 5% adds more on top. Carbohydrate converts to 44.0% of dry matter where the typical puppy kibble sits at 39.0%.

In any growth food, calcium is the number to check first, and this label prints it: 1.54% of dry matter, comfortably within the window growing bone needs. The toy to giant breed claim on the bag stands up because of it. An owner of a big pup should look for that figure first on any puppy food.

Glucosamine at 0.025% and chondroitin at 0.015% close the ingredients list. They are an early nod towards the joints, well short of a therapeutic dose. Salmon oil at 0.5% brings marine omega 3, and dried chicory adds inulin for the gut bacteria. Dried apple and dried sweet potato come with their fresh equivalents printed, 6.5% and 3% respectively. That is honest labelling of a small inclusion.

Protein is declared at 27.0% and fat at 13.0%, converting to 29.7% and 14.3% of dry matter, with ash at 7.5% and moisture at 9.0%. Energy of 345 kcal per 100g is our estimate rather than a declaration. It sits below the 376 typical for a puppy kibble, so a pup who runs everywhere may need the upper end of the feeding guide. Taurine at 500 mg is a thoughtful extra in a growth recipe.

£2.07 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 14kg bags.

Puppies do not eat a fixed amount for long. Start from the growth chart on the bag, then let your pup's condition fine tune it from there. At the bottom the label's guide is 60g a day for the smallest pups, and it tops out at 410g.