Beta Puppy Small Breed review

Beta Puppy Small Breed lands in our Average band, one step below the Good band where the middle of the puppy dry field sits. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Good with protein and processing at Average, so nothing here is falling over. The recipe simply leans on wheat and corn where the foods above it lean on meat, and it names less of what it uses.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken meal (27%), Wheat*, Corn*, Animal fats, Wheat middlings*, Dried animal protein, Digest, Dried chicory root*1 (1%), Dried beet pulp, Minerals, Fish oil, Dried carrot* (0.07%), Dried spinach* (0.07%), Dried parsley* (0.07%), *Natural ingredients, 1Natural prebiotic

Chicken meal at 27% opens the list, and the meal form is worth decoding. The water has already been driven off, so that quarter of the bag arrives as concentrated protein rather than as fresh meat that will shrink in the oven. It is the clearest entry on this label, and it does most of the work behind the declared protein of 29.0%.

Behind it, wheat and corn set the structure, with wheat middlings adding more of the same. Carbohydrate is estimated at 37.5%, converting to 41.2% of dry matter where the typical puppy dry food runs at 39.0%, so this is a grain led kibble and does not pretend otherwise. Alongside it, dried beet pulp adds a gentle fibre that most dogs tolerate well.

Dried chicory root at 1% is the quiet highlight. Chicory root is rich in inulin, a soluble fibre that the friendly bacteria of the large intestine live on, which is exactly the sort of help a young digestive system appreciates. Fish oil follows a few places later, bringing marine omegas for coat and brain.

Animal fats and dried animal protein are the entries an allergy minded owner will stop at. Neither names its animal, and digest, the palatant that makes kibble taste worth finishing, is equally unspecific. For a pup with simple preferences this changes nothing, but a genuine exclusion diet needs a label that names every animal it uses.

Carrot, spinach and parsley each come in at 0.07%, which is seasoning and no more. The closing panel covers the vitamins and trace minerals a growth food has to carry, with zinc at 110 mg/kg and iron at 83 mg/kg among them. Calcium is not printed anywhere in the analysis, and on a food fed through a whole first year that is the figure most owners want in front of them.

Sold in a 2kg bag.

A growing dog has no fixed daily amount, so lean on the label's own chart. It starts around 30g a day for the youngest pups and works up to 110g a day by ten months, moving as your pup fills out.