Barking Heads Big Foot Puppy Days Dry review

Big Foot Puppy Days finishes in our Excellent band, a clear step above the Good band where growth kibbles usually settle. Protein and processing and nutritional balance each read Good behind that headline, with transparency higher still at Outstanding.

What lifts it is the combination a large breed puppy food is really judged on. There is a high share of named meat, a calcium declaration that lands where big breed rearing wants it, and supplements printed with their doses.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 60% (33% Freshly Prepared Free Run Turkey, 23% Dried Turkey, 4% Turkey Gravy), Sweet Potato (14%), Potato, Peas (10%), Potato Protein, Lucerne, Salmon Oil (1%), Minerals, Yeast Products (1000mg/kg), Chicory Root extract (FOS 1000mg/kg), Seaweed, Glucosamine (500mg/kg), Dried Carrot (500mg/kg), Mixed Herbs (Peppermint, Rosemary, Oregano & Thyme 500mg/kg), Beta Glucans (300mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (150mg/kg)

The turkey headline is split into three forms on the label, which tells you more than a single figure ever could. Freshly prepared turkey at 33% arrives as meat and water together, so much of it cooks away. Dried turkey at 23% has already given that water up and carries almost all its weight into the finished kibble. Turkey gravy at 4% is there for taste. The analysis follows suit, with protein at 32.8% of dry matter.

Calcium is the headline act in a food for large breed growth, and here it is declared. At 1.53% of dry matter it sits inside the growth range, which is what you want in a dog that keeps building frame for a year and more. Overdoing calcium across that stretch is the classic way to go wrong with a big pup, so a printed, moderate figure is exactly the reassurance an owner is looking for.

No cereal appears anywhere on the list. Sweet potato at 14% shoulders the starch, with potato beside it and peas at 10%. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 37.1% of dry matter against the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food, so going grain free has not become an excuse to load the recipe with legume starch. Lucerne adds a little fibre behind them.

Every functional extra carries a figure. Glucosamine comes at 500mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 150mg/kg. Chicory root FOS and yeast products are at 1000mg/kg each, with beta glucans at 300mg/kg. Seaweed brings iodine along with a spread of other minerals, and the mixed herbs at 500mg/kg are seasoning.

Two entries earn a second look. The allergen picture lists fish, and salmon oil at 1% is the reason, with turkey the only meat on the ingredient list. Potato protein is the other entry, a plant protein lifting the declared total. Taurine at 1000mg/kg is a thoughtful addition in a food a big dog will eat for months on end.

Every row of the analysis is printed: protein at 30.0%, fat at 16.0%, fibre at 3.0%, ash at 8.5% and moisture at 8.5%. The maker prints the energy figure of 385 kcal per 100g, so it is not our estimate.

£5.65 a kilo, sold in a 6kg bag.

The chart on the bag works from the adult weight your pup is heading for, running from 205g a day for one finishing near 25kg up to 700g for a dog going past 60kg. Those amounts shift month by month through the first year, so read the chart again each time the collar needs letting out.