Trophy Pet Foods Trophy Lifestyle Puppy review

Trophy Lifestyle Puppy earns our Good band, the same band the typical puppy dry food occupies. All four pillars come back Good, so no single column is propping up the rest. Construction is what earns the position. A named meat leads the list in two forms, the tail is itemised with doses against the entries that matter, and what the analysis says matches the front of the bag. What would lift it further is printing the mineral figures, calcium first among them, that a growth diet is judged on.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (24% chicken meal, 12.5% freshly prepared chicken), Pea Starch, Sweet Potato, Oats, Chicken Fat, Chicken Gravy, Brewer's Yeast, Prairie Meal, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil, Egg Powder, Seaweed, Marine Algae (source of omega 3 fatty acid DHA), Minerals, Marigold Flowers (source of lutein), Mannan Oligosaccharides (1,800mg/kg), Fructose Oligosaccharides (1,000mg/kg), Nucleotides, Blackcurrant, Yucca schidigera (200mg/kg), Rosemary, Pomegranate

Chicken appears in two forms, which is worth decoding. Chicken meal at 24% arrives already rendered and dried, so nearly the whole of it carries into the finished kibble. The 12.5% freshly prepared chicken goes in wet and gives up most of its water during cooking. Chicken fat and chicken gravy then follow further down, so the whole animal contribution comes from one bird. Protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter, which is comfortably meaty for a growth kibble.

Pea starch, sweet potato and oats share the binding. Of the three, sweet potato is nutritionally the best of them, with more fibre than a common potato and a good deal of natural vitamin A. Oats bring their own fibre along with manganese and B vitamins. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 41.1% of dry matter where 39.0% is typical of a puppy dry food. The starch load is an ordinary one. Oats keep it off the grain free list, though they are among the gentler grains on a young gut.

The fat side is genuinely well thought through for a puppy. Salmon oil and marine algae both appear, with the label naming the algae for its DHA. That is the long chain omega 3 a puppy uses to build brain and retinal tissue in its first months. Egg powder adds high quality protein and fat, and seaweed brings iodine and trace minerals.

What separates this label from its neighbours sits in the tail of the list. Mannan oligosaccharides are dosed at 1,800 mg/kg, with fructose oligosaccharides behind them. Together they are a prebiotic pair, and the microbes of the large intestine live off them. Nucleotides support cell turnover in a body building itself quickly, marigold flowers are named as a source of lutein for the eyes, and yucca schidigera at 200 mg/kg helps with digestion and stool odour. Blackcurrant, rosemary and pomegranate close the list as antioxidants, with the rosemary doubling as a natural preservative. Prairie meal is the one entry given no explanation at all, so it stands out on an otherwise transparent list.

Two things about the analysis need saying plainly. Moisture is not declared, so the dry matter conversions here use the standard 8% assumption for a kibble, and the energy figure of 365 kcal per 100g is our estimate rather than a declaration. No calcium is printed either. The maker lists this food for pups of every adult size, so if your puppy will grow to a large or giant size, ask Trophy for that number before you commit.

£3.59 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 14kg bags.

The label's daily guide runs by bodyweight, from 42g a day for a 2kg pup up to 472g at 50kg. A puppy's weight is the one thing certain to change, so treat the row you are reading as this week's answer and move down the chart as they grow into the next one.