Belcando Junior Grain-Free review

Our reading lands this one in our Good band, which will look modest next to an ingredients list of this kind, so here is the plain version. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both come out Average, with transparency reading Excellent and value Good. Fresh meat at 40% is largely water before it ever becomes kibble, which is why the finished protein figure is a moderate 26.0%, or 28.9% once the moisture is taken out. Carbohydrate converts to 43.1% of dry matter where a typical growth kibble runs at 39.0%, and energy is an estimated 354 kcal per 100g against a 376 typical. Add a label that names no bird anywhere on it and the picture the analysis gives is a good deal plainer than the one on the front of the bag. The typical puppy dry food, by comparison, sits in that same Good band.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh poultry meat (40%); Amaranth (16%); Low-ash poultry protein, dried (14%); Potato starch; Pea flour; Ground zooplankton (Krill, 2.5%); Sea fish meal (2.5%); Hydrolyzed gelatin (2.5%); Dried baker's yeast (2.5%); Dried egg; Dried carob bean gum; Dicalcium phosphate; Poultry fat; De-sugared dried beet pulp; Chia seeds; Hydrolyzed poultry liver; Salmon oil; Sodium chloride; Potassium chloride

Fresh poultry meat at 40% is the headline, and it helps to know what happens to it. Most of the weight in fresh meat is water, and a large share of that 40% cooks away before the kibble is finished. The dried low-ash poultry protein at 14% is the entry doing the heavier work on the protein line, because its water has already gone. The declared 26.0% protein, 28.9% on a dry matter basis, is the honest end result of the two together.

Neither of those entries names a bird. Poultry is a category, not a species: turkey, goose, duck and chicken all count. A maker can move between birds from batch to batch. Most pups will never notice. An owner trying to work out what upset a sensitive tummy will notice a great deal, and this is the single thing the label could most usefully change.

Amaranth at 16% is the interesting choice here, a seed rather than a cereal, and it carries the biscuit with potato starch and pea flour. Between them they put carbohydrate at 38.8% as fed, 43.1% of dry matter, above the 39.0% typical. De-sugared beet pulp adds fibre at a modest 2.8%, which most puppy digestion handles without fuss.

The marine end of the list is more thoughtful than most growth bags manage. Ground zooplankton, listed as krill at 2.5%, sits with sea fish meal at 2.5% and salmon oil further down, and between them they are where the long chain omega 3 in this recipe comes from.

Minerals are the part of this label that earns its keep. Dicalcium phosphate is added deliberately, calcium converts to 1.33% of dry matter, and crude ash reads 7.4%, or 8.2% of dry matter. For a bag listed for medium and giant pups, a declared, in-range calcium figure is exactly what an owner should be looking for, and plenty of growth foods do not print one at all.

The additive panel prints a dose against every name: vitamin D3 at 1,500 IU, vitamin E at 150 mg, taurine at 500 mg, iron at 200 mg and zinc at 125 mg. Vitamin A is dosed above all of them, and tocopherol extracts at 48 mg keep the fats stable. Lecithin, which this brand prints on some of its other junior bags, is not declared on this one.

The energy figure is our estimate rather than a declaration, at 354 kcal per 100g, and it sits under the 376 a growth kibble usually carries. That is not a fault in itself, though it does mean a hungry pup works through a bag a little faster than the number on the front might suggest.

£4.97 a kilo, sold in 4kg and 12.5kg bags.

There is no fixed daily amount to quote for a growing dog, because the right portion climbs through the early months and then eases back as the frame finishes. Feed to the chart on the bag for the adult weight you expect, and let your pup's shape settle the final number.