Tribal Fresh Pressed Puppy: Fresh chicken review

The turkey lands in our Excellent band alongside the typical cold-pressed puppy food, while the chicken sits a band below it in Good, which is a comfortable place to be in a well built category. What earns it is the higher protein a growing dog wants, a declared calcium level, and a label that prints its vitamin and mineral doses instead of gesturing at them. What holds it back is the starch share, which runs above the format's middle. The turkey reads stronger than the chicken by enough to notice, so start there unless chicken suits your dog better.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken (35%), Sweet potato (35%), Hydrolysed fish protein (16%), Whole egg (5%), Beet pulp, Brewer's yeast, Minerals, Chicken fat, Inulin (source of prebiotic FOS), Herbal blend (0.25%; Parsley, Rosemary, Nettle, Chamomile, Sage, Thyme, Coriander leaves, Dandelion leaves, Liquorice).

Both recipes open the same way, with fresh meat at 35% and sweet potato at 35%, then diverge in how they top up the animal share. The chicken uses a hydrolysed fish protein at 16% and the turkey uses blue whiting at 14%. Both add whole egg, and no label carries a more complete protein than that. That combination is what lifts protein to 27.2% of dry matter, a step above the adult recipes in the same range.

Growth is where the mineral panel matters most, and Tribal prints it. Calcium converts to 0.87% of dry matter in the chicken, 0.98% in the turkey, and both are sensible levels for a growing dog where some puppy foods load the figure. Vitamin D3 is declared at 1750 IU/kg in each. The turkey also prints vitamin A at 17500 IU/kg. Zinc, iron, manganese, copper, iodine and selenium are all listed with doses.

The carbohydrate side is honest about itself. Sweet potato is the main starch and beet pulp adds a steadying fibre. Inulin supplies prebiotic FOS, food for the gut flora a puppy is still building up. Carbohydrate converts to 50.7% of dry matter in the chicken, 51.3% in the turkey, where the cold-pressed puppy middle is 41.4%. The starch is doing a fair amount of the carrying here.

Cold pressing is what separates these pellets from ordinary kibble. Pressing at low temperature is gentler on the ingredients going in than cooking at high heat. The resulting pellet crumbles when it gets wet, and many owners like that for a puppy still working out how fast to eat. It can be softened with warm water for a young mouth without turning to paste.

The finishing touches are shared. Brewer's yeast brings natural B vitamins and a flavour dogs take to. The herbal blend at 0.25% is spelled out ingredient by ingredient, with no category to hide behind. Preservation comes from a tocopherol-rich extract, the natural vitamin E route. Where the chicken uses chicken fat, the turkey has salmon oil at 1% and sunflower oil at 1.35%.

The chicken recipe leans hardest on its fish protein, at 16%, and uses chicken fat as its added oil, so the label stays short. Fat converts to 13.0% of dry matter, energy reads 379 kcal per 100g, and calcium is declared at 0.87% of dry matter. Only the chicken comes in a 12kg bag.

The Fresh Chicken is £7.08 a kilo and the Fresh Turkey is £8.20. The chicken comes in 2.5kg, 5kg and 12kg bags, and the turkey in 2.5kg and 5kg.

Puppy portions move as the pup grows, so the label sets its guide by current weight. On the chicken that is 55 grams a day at 1kg, 185 grams at 5kg, 310 grams at 10kg and 515 grams at 20kg, with the turkey within a few grams at every step. Read against the per-kilo figures above, that is what a day of feeding comes to at each stage of growth.