Purely Delicious

Last night, I gave Daisy and Cybi their samples of Pure to try. Pure has good press, and is unusual in that it's dehydrated from fresh, leaving a very vitamin dense (from fruits and veggies) and protein dense (from meat) foodstuff. You just need to add water to rehydrate it.
It also gets great reviews from All About Dog Food, which I use as my authoritative source on the good, the bad and the ugly in dog food and dog treats.

We were off to a good start with the sample in that it was interesting to Daisy and Cybi, even in unprepared form, to the point where I had to retrieve the sample pack out of Cybi's mouth when it was posted through the letterbox. Cybi is a canine hoover, so the fact that he was interested wasn't definitive, but he has an easily upset stomach and so I tend to make decisions on his behalf about what he can and can't eat. Daisy, on the other hand, can eat anything with no ill effects, but is a picky little creature and will turn her nose up at things and just not eat, rather than eat something she isn't in the mood for. So to have her express interest at the powdered form was a big positive. Oh yeah, it comes in a powder. I have to admit I was slightly thrown by that. I don't know what I was expecting, having read lots about the way the food was prepared...but I wasn't expecting powder with lumps in. In fact (showing my age here, I suspect) it reminded me of nothing quite so much as cup-a-soup.

The instructions say to add about 60ml of water, but I didn't have a measuring jug to hand so just added a decent sploosh, and then left the bowls for 15 mins for the food to rehydrate.

It was a long 15 minutes.

In fact, there was so much drooling that I eventually took pity on them and shooed them out of the kitchen to have a game of tuggy to distract them from the fact that dinner was on the way.

Meanwhile, the powdered food magically rehydrated into something that looked fairly palatable. Given my lack of precision with the water, one meal was slightly more "solid" than the other, but in the end it didn't seem to make any difference.

The Pure Dog Food went down very, very well.

So well that I didn't even have time to snap a picture of Cybi eating his.

But did it go down well enough that I'd switch over to it? Well, that's a tough one. Based off how excited they were when they were given their dinner, and the fact that it makes me sad when Daisy gets her food, sniffs at it and then sulks off if it's something she doesn't want it gets a strong positive in the "palatable" stakes. And it gets a strong positive in the high grade constituent elements, care in processing and knowing what's gone into my dog's food. However...it's not cheap by any stretch (not off the map expensive, but definitely more money than some of the other options I'm considering) and with two growing youngsters to feed it might be something to consider further once they are both at their adult weights and on a maintenance diet rather than still getting taller and filling out. It's also a little bit more work than most other foods - not that this is a problem in itself because we're not exactly talking masses of effort. Putting some water in the food and waiting for a bit isn't taxing, but it does require you to remember to do it, and to allow enough time for the food to fully rehydrate.
So for now, I can't see me making it their main meal, but based off their enthusiasm for it I've already bought a pack to give them as an occasional treat.

And the company score extra bonus points for the cutest mascot I've seen in a while, and a really well done video on their home page with more info about the food.