Wainwright's Grain Free Puppy Dry Food review

Our reading places this kibble in the Good band. The typical bag of puppy kibble reaches the same band, so this one holds the centre of a crowded field, and the route it takes there is worth noticing.

Transparency reads Outstanding, while protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all sit in Good. In plain terms, this is a sensibly built recipe on a label that gives you plenty. The analysis is conventional, with protein at 30.4% of dry matter and a starch base carrying a fair share of the bag.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (40.5%) (Turkey Meal 25%, Turkey Fat 7.5%, Freshly Prepared Turkey 6%, Turkey Digest 2%), Potato Flake, Sweet Potato (14%), Potato Protein, Whole Peas (5%), Beet Pulp (4%), Whole Linseed (2%), Salmon Oil, Monosodium Phosphate, Dried Carrot (0.5% equivalent to 4% Carrot), Seaweed Meal (0.5%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.1%), Dried Broccoli (0.05% equivalent to 0.39% Broccoli), Dried Parsley, Dried Rosehip, Dried Thyme, Yucca Extract (0.02%), Dried Spearmint.

The turkey declaration is the most useful thing here. A 40.5% headline breaks down as 25% turkey meal, 6% freshly prepared turkey, 7.5% turkey fat and 2% turkey digest. The water is already out of turkey meal, so that quarter of the recipe delivers more finished protein to the kibble than the fresh portion does. Turkey fat is a fat and not a meat. That is why the headline number and the muscle meat share are two different things.

What the split does not weaken is the species claim. Every animal ingredient in this recipe is turkey, the digest included, since a digest is a palatant made from the same bird. The one thing that widens the picture is salmon oil, bringing fish into the bowl for the omega 3 that a growing coat and brain need.

The starch is potato flake and sweet potato at 14%, with potato protein and whole peas at 5% behind them. No cereal appears at any point. Carbohydrate converts to 41.9% of dry matter, a little above the 39.0% the middle of the puppy dry field carries. Beet pulp at 4% and whole linseed at 2% handle fibre and plant omegas respectively.

The tail of the list is varied without pretending to be more than it is. Dried carrot at 0.5%, seaweed meal at 0.5%, chicory root extract at 0.1% for prebiotic FOS, dried broccoli at 0.05%, then parsley, rosehip, thyme and spearmint. The label helpfully gives fresh equivalents, noting the dried carrot as equivalent to 4% carrot and the broccoli to 0.39%, which tells you these are flourishes rather than foundations.

The vitamin and trace element panel is printed in full and the kibble is preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural antioxidant and not a chemical preservative. Selenium arrives as sodium selenite here, the widely used form rather than the selenised yeast a dog absorbs more readily.

Two absences shape how the analysis should be read. Moisture goes undeclared, so the dry matter conversions lean on the 8% standard for a kibble. Calcium is not declared either. On a bag sold for pups of every adult size, that second gap is the one a large breed owner will want filled, and the maker is the person to ask for it.

£3.67 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 15kg bags.

A growing dog's ration is never a settled number, so set it by the chart on the bag and revise it as your pup changes shape. The label's own guide begins at 35g a day for the smallest puppies and reaches 915g a day at the far end.