Briantos Junior review

Briantos Junior sits in our Good band, level with the middle of the puppy dry field. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average, for consistent reasons. The grain share is large, the meat share is smaller than most growth foods carry, and the two biggest animal entries are named by group. Transparency and value both read Good. The calcium line is the genuinely good news here, printed and inside the growth range where a great many labels simply leave it out.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry protein (dried) (26.5%), rice (20%), barley, maize, poultry fat, pork protein (dried), protein hydrolysate, dried beet pulp (desugared), peas (dried), dried brewer's yeast, fish oil, sodium chloride, potassium chloride

Dried poultry protein at 26.5% leads the list, and the dried form is the useful part of that: the water has already gone, so the figure carries into the finished kibble roughly as printed. Poultry, though, is a food group and not a single animal. It could be chicken, turkey, duck or a blend, and the maker is free to vary it between batches. That is precisely what makes a food hard to work with for a dog with a known intolerance.

Rice at 20% opens the grain share, with barley and maize behind it. Rice is among the kinder grains for a young digestion, and barley brings useful fibre along with selenium and copper. Grain does a lot of the work in this bowl. Together with maize they push carbohydrate to 42.9%, which converts to 46.6% of dry matter against 39.0% for the typical puppy dry food.

Dried pork protein sits behind the poultry, and it deserves a note in its favour. Pork turns up comparatively rarely in dog food, so it is often novel to a dog who has met chicken and beef many times over. Protein hydrolysate, by contrast, names nothing at all, and poultry fat names a group rather than a bird.

Calcium is where this label earns its keep. It converts to 1.52% of dry matter, printed on the label and inside the band a growing skeleton wants. Getting calcium wrong is the classic failure in rearing a big puppy, so a declared, in range figure genuinely matters, and it holds for the giant breeds the maker lists this food for.

The tail of the list is sensible enough. Dried beet pulp comes desugared, which answers the usual objection to it, dried peas add a little plant protein and fibre, and brewer's dried yeast is a natural B vitamin source. Fish oil is why fish appears in the recipe at all, and it carries the long chain omega 3 fats a young brain and coat draw on. The added panel is fully dosed, with vitamin E at 195 mg/kg and choline chloride at 1750 mg/kg among the entries.

£2.14 a kilo, sold in a 14kg bag.

Feed from the growth chart, reading off your dog's age and the adult size you expect. A junior's ration keeps moving as they mature, so go by eye and by hand every few weeks and adjust.