Taste of the Wild Puppy High Prairie Grain-Free: Roasted Venison & Bison review

Both recipes land in our Good band, level with the typical puppy dry food. Transparency reads Excellent on each, protein and processing Average, with nutritional balance and value in the Good band. The produce and the named oils are doing genuine work here. The carbohydrate estimate of 39.6% of dry matter sits almost exactly on the 39.0% typical for the category, so the starch load is normal and not heavy. What holds the position back is a label that leans on pea protein for part of its protein and declines to print the mineral figures a growth food is usually read on.

Ingredients, as declared: Bison (10.5%), lamb meal, sweet potatoes, egg products, pea protein, peas, potatoes, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), tomato pulp, roasted deer (4%), beef, linseed, potato fiber, sea fish meal, salmon oil (a DHA source), minerals, dried chicory roots, yucca schidigera extract, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries.

The starch base is the same in both bags. Sweet potato leads it, and it is a genuinely useful choice: more fibre than a common potato, a lot of natural vitamin A, and a gentler effect on blood sugar than its name suggests. Potato follows, which is plainer but perfectly digestible once cooked, and peas add antioxidants and a spread of vitamins alongside the starch they bring.

The entry to read carefully here is pea protein. It is what pea processing leaves behind, and its purpose on the label is to raise the protein figure. For amino acid balance and digestibility, meat still beats a plant protein. It sits fifth or sixth on both lists, high enough to be doing real work, which is worth knowing when a declared 27.0% protein looks meaty on the front of the bag.

Each recipe's character shows up in the tail of the list. Tomato pulp brings soluble fibre, and dried chicory root supplies inulin for the gut bacteria to feed on. Yucca extract helps with digestion and stool odour. Tomatoes, blueberries and raspberries add antioxidants at a garnish level. Taurine is added at 0.1%. Most dogs make this heart supporting amino acid for themselves, and putting it into a grain free recipe is a thoughtful touch.

Both recipes declare an energy figure of 366 kcal per 100g, where 376 is typical for a puppy dry food. Portions here therefore run a fraction larger than average rather than smaller. Fat converts to 16.7% of dry matter and ash to 8.1%, both comfortable for growth.

What is missing is the mineral detail. Ash tells you roughly how much mineral is present but not how it is split, and neither label prints calcium or phosphorus. A small or medium breed puppy makes that gap a minor irritation. For a giant breed pup, whose frame is what suffers most when calcium is wrong, that is the first thing to ask the maker about.

This is the red meat bag. Bison at 10.5% leads, lamb meal follows as the concentrated protein, roasted deer at 4% and beef sit further down, and egg products add a second kind of animal protein high on the list. Chicken fat and sea fish meal put poultry and fish into a recipe whose name mentions neither, so the whole list is worth reading if your pup avoids either. Linseed and potato fibre are the plant additions unique to this one.

£5.69 a kilo. Pacific Stream is sold in 2kg and 12.2kg bags, and Roasted Venison and Bison adds a 5.6kg bag between those two.

No single daily amount fits a puppy here. The label's own guide climbs with bodyweight, from 33g a day for the smallest up to 666g for the largest. Read across that chart at each weigh in and step the portion up as your pup grows into the next row.