Ava Breed Health French Bulldog Dry: Puppy review

This is a range with one verdict rather than a spread of them. All three editions hold our Good band, matching the typical adult dry food, with protein and processing and nutritional balance reading Average on each of them. What still separates the labels is what each one proves: the Adult and Puppy leave moisture undeclared, and the Puppy also omits the calcium figure growth diets are held to. Nothing in any edition reads as a hazard; the difference lies in how much certainty each label offers.

Ingredients, as declared: Fish (41%) (Fish Meal (19.2%), White Fish (19.2%), Salmon Stock (2.6%)), Sweet Potato (19.2%), Potato (17.2%), Salmon Oil (6.1%), Beet Pulp (5.2%), Tapioca (4.4%), Sunflower Oil, Psyllium, Minerals, Brewers Yeast, Egg, Chicory Inulin (a source of Prebiotic Fructooligosaccharides (0.2%)), Yeasts (as a source of Beta-glucans and Prebiotic Mannanoligosaccharide) (0.14%), Glucosamine (0.03%), Yucca Extract (0.025%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.02%), Cranberry Extract (0.018%), Pomegranate Extract (0.009%), Green Tea Extract (0.009%)

In the original recipe the fish adds up to 41.5%: fish meal at 19.9% leads, white fish at 19.0% follows and salmon stock at 2.6% closes. The meal, already rendered dry, supplies most of the working protein, though it is a pity the species behind it goes unnamed. Protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter in the original, gentle but serviceable for a small companion breed.

Structure comes from sweet potato at 19.0% and potato at 17.0%, with tapioca at 4.3% as a plain starch binder. No grain appears on any label in the range. The original's carbohydrate estimate lands at 47.4% of dry matter, close to the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, so this is a bowl where plants and fish share the load fairly evenly.

The digestive supports are the most Frenchie-specific thinking on show. Psyllium brings soluble fibre and beet pulp at 5.2% adds a gentler fermentable kind. Fructooligosaccharides at 0.2% and mannanoligosaccharides at 0.14% finish the gut care. Salmon oil at 6.0% and sunflower oil cover omega 3 and omega 6 between them.

Functional extras are declared with their inclusion rates: glucosamine at 0.03% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.02%, small but honest amounts. The trace minerals are chelated with doses printed on each label, and the closing run of cranberry, pomegranate and green tea extracts is decoration a recipe like this neither needs nor leans on.

The Puppy edition refits the feeding chart for growth, from 140 grams a day at 3.5kg, and carries L-carnitine at 200 mg. It sits in our Good band, and with calcium undeclared it is best kept to small breeds like the one it names rather than larger, faster-growing pups.

The original and Puppy editions come in 3kg bags at £5.90 a kilo, while the Adult's 12kg bag brings the rate down to £4.17.

Against the standard maintenance benchmark of around 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75), the original works out at about £1.47 a day on 248 grams. The Adult comes to about £1.03 on 246 grams. Puppy portions come from the growth chart on the bag, beginning at 140 grams a day for a 3.5kg pup.