Arden Grange Puppy/Junior Large Breed review

Our reading puts this food in the Good band, the same company the middle of the puppy kibble field keeps. It earns that spot on the parts of the label that matter most for a big pup. Transparency is its strongest pillar and reads Outstanding, helped by the declared calcium and the printed supplement doses, while protein and processing reads Good and nutritional balance reads Average. The starch load and the measured protein figure are what stop it climbing, and the notes below show exactly where.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (chicken meat meal 30%, fresh chicken 5%), rice (19%), maize, refined chicken oil, beet pulp, chicken digest, krill, minerals, yeast, whole dried egg, whole linseed. prebiotic FOS, prebiotic MOS, glucosamine (370 mg/ kg), MSM (370mg/kg), chondroitin (260mg/kg), yucca extract, cranberries, nucleotides.

Chicken meat meal at 30% opens the list with fresh chicken at 5% behind it. The meal is dried before it is weighed, so that 30% carries through to the finished kibble much as printed. The fresh portion shrinks a good deal in the oven. Protein lands at 26.0% as fed and 28.3% of dry matter, a workable figure for growth.

Calcium is what earns this bag its large breed name, declared and converting to 1.52% of dry matter. Getting calcium right is the quiet job of any big-breed growth food, because a fast-building skeleton does far better on a measured supply than a generous one. Seeing the figure printed means you can feed with confidence.

The starch here is rice at 19% with maize behind it. Carbohydrate works out at 40.5% as fed and 44.0% of dry matter, against 39.0% for the typical puppy dry food. Beet pulp brings a gentle, well-tolerated fibre alongside, with crude fibre declared at 2.5%.

The supplement tail is where this label pulls ahead of its neighbours. Glucosamine and MSM are printed at 370 mg/kg apiece and chondroitin at 260 mg/kg, doses given rather than gestured towards, which is what an owner of a heavy pup wants to see written down. Prebiotic FOS and MOS sit with nucleotides and yucca extract, and cranberries close the list.

A pair of entries change the allergen picture. Chicken digest is a palatant made from the same bird, so it keeps that side of the recipe whole, but krill puts fish into the bowl and is worth registering for a fish-avoiding pup. Whole dried egg adds easily used protein, and whole linseed supplies plant-side omega 3 to the fats.

The declared analysis leaves few blanks, with moisture at 8.0% and ash at 7.0% both printed, so the dry matter column stands on the label rather than an assumption. The energy figure of 389 kcal per 100g is declared too, and the added vitamin panel names A, D3 and E with their doses given.

Sold in 2kg, 6kg and 14kg bags, with 4 x 2kg and 2 x 14kg multipacks. We hold no per kilo figure for this range at the moment.

A growing pup's ration keeps moving, so work from the chart printed on the bag. It starts at 80g a day for the smallest pups and reaches 360g at the far end. Adjust as your pup fills out.