Wainwright's Sensitive Puppy Dry Food review

Puppy kibble as a class averages out in our Good band, and this bag sits a step above it in our Excellent band. Transparency reads Outstanding. Value reads Excellent, and protein and processing and nutritional balance sit behind them at Good.

Where it gives ground is on what the label declines to declare. Neither moisture nor calcium is printed. The dry matter figures are worked from the standard 8% assumption used for kibble rather than from the pack itself, and the number that governs large breed growth is missing altogether. The recipe above it is specific and generous, so this is a case of the paperwork trailing the food.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon (51%) (Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon* 30%, Salmon Meal 18%, Salmon Digest 3%), Sweet Potato (32%), Salmon Oil (10%), Potato Protein, Beet Pulp (1%), Krill Meal (0.9%), Seaweed Meal (0.1%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.05%), Green Lipped Mussel Extract (0.05%), Yucca Extract (0.02%)

The 51% salmon headline is broken into freshly prepared Scottish salmon at 30%, salmon meal at 18% and salmon digest at 3%. Fresh fish brings its water along. The meal has already been dried, so it contributes more protein to the finished kibble than its share implies. Digest is a small palatability entry made from the same fish. Declared protein of 30.0% works out at 32.6% of dry matter on the assumed moisture basis.

Sweet potato at 32% is the single biggest plant entry and the reason this recipe holds together without cereal. Our carbohydrate estimate is 36.9% of dry matter against the 39.0% typical of a puppy kibble. Despite the size of that entry, the starch load runs a touch lighter than average. Beet pulp at 1% brings a gentle, well-tolerated fibre behind it.

The entry that shapes this food is salmon oil at 10%. Ten percent of added marine oil is a lot, it takes declared fat to 19.0%, or 20.7% of dry matter, and it is why energy reaches 407 kcal per 100g. A puppy's brain and coat draw on long-chain omega 3 fats, and oily fish is a strong source of them. The size of that oil entry is a deliberate choice. It does make for a rich bag, so a settled pup wants portioning carefully.

Potato protein follows the oil. It is a plant protein, there to lift the protein figure. It does no harm, though it does not match fish for quality or digestibility. Part of that 30.0% is fair to read as coming from a lesser source than the salmon above it.

Green lipped mussel extract at 0.05% and krill meal at 0.9% give the recipe a joint and marine-nutrient tail. Seaweed meal at 0.1% adds natural minerals and iodine. Chicory root extract at 0.05% is where the prebiotic FOS comes from, and yucca extract at 0.02% closes it. Both krill and mussel are animal ingredients, which is worth holding in mind for any pup on a genuine exclusion diet.

The added panel is thorough and dosed in print: vitamin E at 448mg and L-Carnitine at 25mg alongside vitamins A and D3. Then zinc at 50mg with a further 25mg as a protein-hydrolysate chelate, iron at 32mg, manganese at 20mg, copper at 4.0mg and iodine at 1.2mg. Natural antioxidants keep the oil fresh. What the panel never reaches is calcium. Large breed owners want that figure printed more than any other on a growth food, and the pack cannot answer it, so the maker will have to.

£6.50 a kilo buying the 2kg bag, or £4.58 a kilo in the 12kg.

A puppy's daily amount keeps shifting, since it answers to age and to the adult frame your dog is growing into. Weigh out what the bag's chart says for their stage and let their shape correct it. The printed guide begins at 30g a day for the smallest pups and stretches to 865g a day for the largest.