Acana Puppy Large Breed Recipe review

This one settles in our Excellent band, a step above the typical puppy dry food. Transparency and nutritional balance both come back Outstanding, with protein and processing Good and value Excellent, so no single strength is doing the carrying here. The head of the ingredients list and a printed, in-range calcium figure are what earn the placing, and the rest of the label keeps pace with them.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken (22%), chicken meal (21%), whole red lentils, whole green peas, fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart) (6.5%), fresh eggs (4%), raw hake (4%), fish oil (4%), herring meal (4%), whole chickpeas, pea starch, turkey meal (2%), whole green lentils, whole yellow peas, chicken fat (2%), lentil fibre, raw turkey livers (0.5%), salt, dried kelp, fresh whole apples, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole carrots, fresh whole pears, fresh whole pumpkin, fresh whole zucchini, dried chicory root, fresh kale, fresh spinach, fresh turnip greens, fresh beet greens, whole blueberries, whole cranberries, whole saskatoon berries, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, milk thistle, rosehips, turmeric.

Chicken opens the list twice over, fresh at 22% and as chicken meal at 21%. The two forms do different jobs. Fresh meat is largely water and shrinks a long way in the oven, while meal has already been dried, so that 21% carries more of the finished kibble than its number suggests. Between them they put chicken ahead of everything else in the bag, and the declared protein of 33.0% follows from it.

Calcium is the number that matters most in a big breed growth food, and this label prints it. It converts to 1.59% of dry matter, inside the range a large skeleton wants while it lengthens. Rearing a giant breed is largely an exercise in not letting growth outrun the frame. On a bag whose chart reaches 80kg adults, a declared, in-range figure is the most reassuring thing on the pack.

Whole red lentils and whole green peas sit third and fourth, with chickpeas, yellow peas, pea starch and lentil fibre further down and no grain anywhere. The starch load stays modest for a kibble, with carbohydrate estimated at 27.0% as fed and 30.7% of dry matter, where the typical puppy dry food runs at 39.0%.

The animal side does not stop at chicken. Fresh giblets at 6.5% bring liver and heart, among the most nutrient dense things a dog can eat. Fresh eggs at 4%, raw hake at 4%, herring meal at 4% and turkey meal at 2% each take a named place. Fish oil is printed at 4%, and a growing brain and coat both draw on the omega 3 it carries. Dried kelp brings trace minerals, iodine included.

The long tail of apples, pumpkin, butternut squash, carrots, kale, spinach, berries and botanicals such as milk thistle, turmeric and rosehips is garnish. The recipe is not asking it to be more than that. Salt appears as an entry of its own, which is common practice for palatability and worth a glance if sodium is on your vet's list for the household.

The additive panel is dosed properly. Choline chloride at 980 mg per kilo, zinc at 112.5 mg and copper at 11 mg sit alongside a full B group. Vitamin A is declared at 3750 IU, vitamin D3 at 500 IU and vitamin E at 550 IU. Tocopherol extracts at 121 mg and citric acid at 40 mg keep the fats from turning, and rosemary extract at 80 mg is there for aroma. A live Enterococcus faecium culture closes the panel as a gut supplement. The 338 kcal per 100g is the maker's own declaration rather than an estimate.

£6.75 a kilo, sold in an 11.4kg bag.

There is no fixed daily amount for a growing dog, so the label works from expected adult size instead. A 5kg pup on course for a 30kg adult gets 180g a day, rising to 720g for a giant breed pup at 80kg. Weigh what you serve, then let the chart and your pup's outline move the figure between them.