Beco Dry Puppy Food review

Our reading puts this in our Good band, the band a typical puppy kibble reaches too, with transparency coming out Outstanding and the other three pillars Average.

The gap is not about honesty, because this label names everything it uses and gives amounts for most of it. It is about what the analysis then shows. Protein reaches 28.8% of dry matter and carbohydrate an estimated 42.3%, against the 39.0% typical. That is the shape of a recipe whose meat is all fresh and whose plant side is doing a fair share of the lifting.

Ingredients, as declared: 51% Freshly Prepared Turkey (Freshly Prepared Turkey 40%, Freshly Prepared Turkey Fat 11%)*, Potato, Peas, Field Beans, Potato Protein, Chickpeas, Pea Protein, Minerals, Brewer's Yeast, Lucerne, Trout Oil, Vegetable Gravy, Joint Pack (Glucosamine, Methylsulfonylmethane, Chondroitin Sulphate), Chicory, Pumpkin (10mg/kg), Spinach (10mg/kg), Bilberry, Freshly Prepared Egg, Broccoli (10mg/kg), Spirulina (10mg/kg), Camomile, Burdock Root, Milk Thistle Seed.

The 51% freshly prepared turkey is really two entries, 40% turkey meat and 11% turkey fat. Fresh meat is roughly three quarters water, so once the kibble is dried the meat is a much smaller part of what lands in the bowl than the front of the bag implies. A dried turkey alongside the fresh would have held that share up, and the declared protein of 28.8% of dry matter is the analysis telling the same story.

The plant side is broad and grain free. Potato, peas, field beans and chickpeas carry the starch between them, and potato protein and pea protein add protein of plant origin. A dog gets less out of vegetable protein than out of meat protein, and that flatters the headline protein figure a little.

Carbohydrate is estimated at 42.3% of dry matter where puppy kibbles typically run at 39.0%, and ash converts to 9.8%. Fibre is steady at 3.3% of dry matter, with lucerne and chicory adding to the fibre and prebiotic side, chicory being the entry that genuinely feeds gut bacteria.

The joint pack of glucosamine, methylsulfonylmethane and chondroitin sulphate is grouped as a single entry with no figures beside it. Grouping keeps the inclusion honest as a description, but it leaves an owner unable to judge whether the amounts are meaningful.

Beco enjoys itself at the end of the list: pumpkin, spinach, broccoli and spirulina at 10mg/kg each, then bilberry, camomile, burdock root and milk thistle seed. At those levels they are decoration rather than nutrition, though they are at least named and measured, which is more than plenty of labels manage.

Trout oil supplies the omega 3 fats a growing pup draws on and freshly prepared egg brings a highly usable protein. Both are good things to see, and both mean the recipe cannot be described as turkey and nothing else. Energy is declared by the maker at 370 kcal per 100g against the 376 typical of a puppy dry food.

Calcium is not declared anywhere on this panel, and in a growth food that is the one figure that should never be left out. This is a food for pups of any adult size. An owner raising a large or giant breed has no number to set a feeding plan against, and would need to ask the maker for it.

£9.33 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 6kg bags.

A puppy's appetite moves faster than any fixed measure, so keep the chart on the pack to hand. Step the amount up or down as your pup fills out and their expected adult weight becomes clearer.