Brit Care Dog Hypoallergenic Junior Large Breed review

Our Good band is where this food settles, and the typical puppy dry food keeps the same company. The interesting part is the margin. This one comes out clear of the middle of that field and does not merely sit on it. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good, as does value, with transparency Outstanding, a level showing rather than one strength doing the heavy lifting.

The position is earned on construction. A single named meat leads, the calcium that large breed growth turns on is declared and in range, and the supplement tail arrives with numbers attached to the names.

Ingredients, as declared: dehydrated lamb (42%), rice (35%), chicken fat, dried apple pulp, salmon oil (3%), brewer's yeast, natural flavour, 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), Lactobacillus helveticus HA - 122 inactivated (15x109 cells/kg).

The 42% of dehydrated lamb is worth decoding. Dried meat carries no water by the time it is weighed. Where a fresh meat percentage shrinks a good deal once the kibble is baked, this share carries through much as printed. The declared protein of 28.0%, or 31.1% of dry matter, is the analysis agreeing with the front of the bag. Lamb is one of the easier red meats for a puppy to digest, and few dogs have met enough of it to have taken against it.

Rice at 35% does the binding. It is a gentle, well tolerated cereal that cooks down into a starch most puppies handle without fuss, which is exactly why it turns up in so many recipes written for delicate digestions. Carbohydrate is estimated at 36.8% as fed, or 40.9% of dry matter, a shade above the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food.

Calcium is the number that matters most here and it is printed: 1.44% of dry matter, sitting inside the range large breed growth calls for. Get it too low and the frame is underbuilt. Get it too high and a big pup grows faster than the joints appreciate. On a food sold for large breed juniors, a declared and in range figure is the single most reassuring thing on the label. Ash at 7.0% puts the wider mineral load in ordinary territory.

The fats come from chicken fat and salmon oil at 3%, which is where the omega 3 for coat and brain arrives. Both deserve a moment from allergy minded owners: lamb may be the only meat, but poultry and fish are in the bowl in another form.

The bottom third of the list is supplements, each with its dose in print. Glucosamine reaches 300 mg/kg with chondroitin sulphate at 230 mg/kg on the joint side. Fructo-oligosaccharides at 230 mg/kg and mannan-oligosaccharides at 180 mg/kg feed gut bacteria. Mojave yucca at 180 mg/kg, milk thistle seed at 110 mg/kg with motherwort, sea buckthorn and beta-glucans at 60 mg/kg apiece round it off. An inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture closes the list.

Energy runs to 385 kcal per 100g against the 376 typical for a puppy dry food, so a big pup gets there on a sensible bowlful. The added panel carries taurine and L-carnitine alongside a full vitamin list and organic forms of zinc, manganese, copper and iron.

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

Start from the growth chart on the pack, because a large breed pup's portion changes almost by the week. How easily you can feel the ribs settles the rest.