Belcando Junior M-L review

This one lands in our Good band, the same company the typical growth kibble keeps, finishing a shade under that typical mark. The nutritional balance and transparency pillars both read Good, with protein and processing the one that comes out Average, and that matches how the label reads from top to bottom. On one side there is a properly itemised meat block, named offal, a declared calcium figure and a fully dosed additive panel. On the other there is a starch load of rice and oatmeal that puts carbohydrate at 43.5% of dry matter against a 39.0% typical. Protein at 26.0% is respectable for a food a pup will be on for months.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh lamb meat, liver, and lung (total: 30%); Rice (30%); Oatmeal; Dried lamb protein (10%); Low-ash dried poultry protein (7.5%); Sea fish meal (3.5%); Dried sugar beet pulp; Dried egg; Hydrolyzed gelatin (2.5%); Dried baker's yeast (2.5%); Dried carob bean gum; Poultry fat; Vegetable oil (palm, coconut); Chia seeds (1.5%); Hydrolyzed poultry liver; Salmon oil; Sodium chloride; Potassium chloride

The meat block is the best thing about this list. Fresh lamb meat, liver and lung are declared together at 30%, with the organ meats named openly instead of being tucked into a general term, and lamb is a meat most pups digest easily. Fresh weight is largely water, so the dried lamb protein at 10% is what keeps real lamb in the finished kibble.

Poultry turns up three times further down: a low-ash dried poultry protein at 7.5%, poultry fat, and a hydrolysed poultry liver. None of them names a bird, which is a shame on a label that took the trouble to itemise its lamb. It is also why the recipe cannot serve a strict single-meat plan, even though lamb clearly leads it.

Rice at 30% and oatmeal make the starch base. Oats are among the gentler cereals for a dog and bring useful fibre with them, and dried sugar beet pulp adds a little more, with crude fibre at 2.8%. The total comes to 39.2% carbohydrate as fed, 43.5% of dry matter, which is a starchier plate than the meat headline alone would suggest.

The fats come from three directions. Poultry fat does the bulk of it, a vegetable oil declared as palm and coconut sits alongside, and salmon oil with chia seeds at 1.5% covers the omega side for coat and brain. Naming palm and coconut is at least more open than the bare term some labels use.

For a food aimed at medium and larger pups, the mineral side is where the real reassurance sits. Calcium converts to 1.5% of dry matter, inside the range growth works to, and crude ash comes to 7.0%, or 7.8% of dry matter. Getting calcium wrong is the classic mistake in rearing a bigger dog, so a printed figure in the right place is worth a great deal.

The additive panel is fully dosed: vitamin D3 at 1,500 IU, vitamin E at 150 mg, taurine at 500 mg, zinc at 150 mg and iron at 200 mg. Vitamin A carries the largest figure of the vitamins, with lecithin at 1,600 mg and tocopherol extracts at 48 mg. Dried baker's yeast at 2.5% and hydrolysed gelatin at 2.5% round the list off.

Energy is our estimate, not a printed figure, at 356 kcal per 100g, a little under the 376 a puppy kibble typically carries. It is a steady rather than a rich food, which suits a medium or large pup you would rather see grow evenly.

£4.54 a kilo, sold in 4kg and 12.5kg bags.

A puppy's daily amount is never a fixed thing. It rises through the fastest weeks and comes back down as growth slows. Work from the maker's chart for the adult size you expect your pup to reach, and adjust by feel as they fill out.