Belcando Junior Maxi review

Nothing on this panel fails outright, which is why protein and processing and nutritional balance read Average and transparency Good. The reading still comes out in our Average band, while a typical growth kibble sits in Good. The difference is starch. Rice at 18% with corn and oatmeal behind it pushes carbohydrate to 42.7% as fed, 47.5% once the moisture comes out, well clear of the 39.0% typical. That leaves protein at 24.5% and fat at 13.0% doing less of the work than they would in a meatier recipe. The restraint on fat and energy is deliberate and makes real sense for a big frame growing slowly. It is the cereal load behind it, rather than the growth thinking, that holds the reading where it is.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh poultry meat (30%); Rice (18%); Corn; Oatmeal; Low-ash dried poultry protein (13%); Dried egg; Fish meal from sea fish (2.5%); Hydrolysed gelatin (2.5%); Dried baker's yeast (2.5%); Dried carob seed meal (2.5%); De-sugared dried sugar beet pulp; Dicalcium phosphate; Hydrolysed poultry liver; Poultry fat; Chia seeds; Salmon oil; Flaxseed; Vegetable oil (palm, coconut); Sodium chloride; Potassium chloride

Fresh poultry meat at 30% opens the list. As with any fresh meat entry, much of that weight is water and cooks away. The low-ash dried poultry protein at 13% is the concentrated counterpart and the entry that keeps the finished protein figure standing at 24.5%.

What the label never does is name the bird. Chicken, duck, goose and turkey all sit inside the term poultry, and the same vagueness follows through the poultry fat and the hydrolysed poultry liver lower down. For a pup with no sensitivities this changes nothing at all; for one you are trying to read, it removes the information you would most want.

Three starch sources share the middle of this recipe. Rice at 18% comes first, then corn, then oatmeal, and together they take carbohydrate to 42.7% as fed and 47.5% of dry matter. Oats bring useful fibre with them and de-sugared beet pulp adds more, with crude fibre reading 2.8%, but the overall starch share is the highest thing on this panel.

The calcium story is the one that matters most on a large breed bag, and Belcando handles it properly. Dicalcium phosphate is added on purpose, calcium converts to 1.22% of dry matter, and ash reads 7.0%, or 7.8% of dry matter. Big pups grow into heavy skeletons over a long stretch, and a controlled, printed calcium figure is precisely what that job needs.

The fat and energy numbers are best read as part of the same intention. Fat is 13.0%, or 14.4% of dry matter, with an estimated 346 kcal per 100g against a 376 typical. Together they make a food that will not push a giant breed pup to put weight on faster than the joints would like. Salmon oil, flaxseed and chia seeds cover the omega fats within that lower total, and a vegetable oil from palm and coconut fills in the rest.

Fish meal from sea fish at 2.5%, dried egg, hydrolysed gelatin at 2.5%, dried baker's yeast at 2.5% and dried carob seed meal at 2.5% make up the supporting cast. Egg is a genuinely useful protein for a growing dog, and the yeast is the kind of inclusion that helps a fussy pup clear the bowl.

Every entry on the added panel carries a dose: 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 sits on top of those, with lecithin at 800 mg and tocopherol extracts at 48 mg. The energy figure alone is our estimate rather than a declaration.

£4.41 a kilo, sold in 4kg and 12.5kg bags.

Big breed pups change what they need faster and for longer than any other size, so the printed growth chart is the only sensible starting point. The weekly test that matters is how easily you can still feel your pup's ribs under the coat.