Brit Care Dog Grain-free Junior Large Breed review

This recipe reaches our Excellent band, a full band clear of the middle of the puppy dry field. The pillars climb from Good on protein and processing and on nutritional balance to Excellent on value and Outstanding on transparency, with no soft corner anywhere. The position is earned on specifics: a single named meat at 52%, and calcium declared and inside the growth range. The supplement tail puts a dose against nearly every entry instead of listing names and leaving it there.

Ingredients, as declared: salmon (52%) (dehydrated salmon, hydrolysed salmon), potatoes (26%), chicken fat, dried apple pulp, salmon oil (3%), natural flavour, brewer's yeast, hydrolysed yeast (0.5% - a source of inositol and amino acids), pea flour, glucosamine (300 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (230 mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate (230 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (180 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (180 mg/kg), milk thistle seed (110 mg/kg), β-glucans (60 mg/kg), dried motherwort (60 mg/kg), dried sea buckthorn (60 mg/kg), probiotic Lactobacillus helveticus HA - 122 inactivated (15x109 cells/kg).

Salmon at 52% is the entire meat content, and it arrives in two dried forms. The water is already out of the dehydrated salmon, so its share carries straight into the finished kibble. The hydrolysed part has been broken into smaller fragments that a young gut absorbs easily. Salmon oil at 3% comes from the same fish and tops up the long chain omega 3 fats a growing brain depends on, with the eyes and the coat drawing on them too.

Chicken fat is the exception to the single fish story. It is a good, energy dense animal fat and most dogs will never give it a second thought. The recipe is not chicken free, though, and that counts on a genuine exclusion diet.

Potatoes at 26% carry the starch, with pea flour behind them. There is no grain on the list at all. Carbohydrate lands at 36.8% as fed, converting to 40.8% of dry matter, a touch above the 39.0% typical for the category. Dried apple pulp brings gentle fibre, and fibre is declared at 3.2%, which is on the generous side and helps a big pup form a firm stool.

Calcium is the figure a large breed growth food lives or dies by, and this one prints it: 1.33% of dry matter, inside the range big breed rearing works to. Overfeed calcium during growth and a heavy framed dog pays for it later in the joints. A declared, in range number on a bag that explicitly names large breed juniors is exactly the alignment you want to see.

The tail is unusually well dosed. Glucosamine at 300 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 230 mg/kg look after the joints, and FOS at 230 mg/kg with MOS at 180 mg/kg feed the gut bacteria. An inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture is declared at 15 billion cells per kilo. Mojave yucca at 180 mg/kg helps with stool odour, milk thistle seed at 110 mg/kg is a traditional liver support, and beta glucans, motherwort and sea buckthorn each come in at 60 mg/kg.

The added panel is thorough too, with vitamin E at 550 mg/kg, vitamin C at 350 mg/kg, taurine at 1,500 mg/kg and L-carnitine at 300 mg/kg. The trace minerals are supplied in organic chelated forms, which are generally absorbed better than sulphate salts. Preservation is by tocopherol extracts and rosemary, with no chemical antioxidants.

£4.40 a kilo, sold in 1kg, 3kg and 12kg bags.

The label's own chart runs from 250g a day at three to four months for a pup heading towards 25kg, up to 420g a day for the very biggest. With a large breed, a growth chart beats a fixed scoop every time.