Brit Premium by Nature Junior S review

This one settles in our Excellent band, a step above the Good band the typical puppy dry food occupies. The meat share at the front is genuinely high, so the reading turns on what shares the bag with it.

Nutritional balance reads Excellent and transparency Outstanding, with value Excellent as well and protein and processing landing on Good, which is a fair summary of the label: wheat and corn sit in a recipe that opens with 55% dried chicken, the mineral load runs high for growth, and the vitamin list is printed short. For a small pup with no cereal sensitivity, that front of the list is still the part that counts.

Ingredients, as declared: hicken dehydrated (55%), chicken fat, oats, wheat, salmon oil (2%), corn, dried apple pulp, hydrolyzed chicken liver, brewer's yeast, collagen, glucosamine (260 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (180 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (150 mg/kg), fructo- oligosaccharides (100 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (100 mg/kg), dried chamomile (90 mg/kg), glycosaminoglycans (60 mg/kg), dried blueberries (60 mg/kg), dried cloves (40 mg/kg), dried citrus (40 mg/kg), dried rosemary (40 mg/kg), dried curcuma (40 mg/kg).

Dehydrated chicken at 55% is the strongest thing on this label. The water is already out, so that share holds up in the finished kibble. A fresh meat figure would shrink instead. Protein converting to 35.6% of dry matter reflects it. Chicken fat comes next in the list, which is why the analysis carries fat at 20.0% as fed, or 22.2% of dry matter.

Oats, wheat and corn provide the carbohydrate. Oats are the most digestible of the three and the least likely to trouble a pup, while wheat and corn are commodity cereals that most dogs cope with happily and a minority react to. Carbohydrate lands at 29.2% as fed, or 32.4% of dry matter, comfortably under the 39.0% typical for a puppy dry food, so the cereal is playing a supporting part rather than the lead.

Calcium converts to 1.67% of dry matter. That is a heavy mineral load for a growth food, and it runs above what a large breed plan would allow. For the small breed pups this bag is written for it is workable, and it is the clearest reason to treat the S on the front as a genuine instruction. Ash sits at 6.8%.

Hydrolysed chicken liver and collagen sit below the cereals. The liver is a palatant, broken into fragments that coat the kibble and get a small pup started. Collagen, a connective tissue protein, reads as a nod towards the joint supplements further down.

Those supplements name their doses: glucosamine at 260 mg/kg, chondroitin sulphate at 180 mg/kg and glycosaminoglycans at 60 mg/kg for the joints, with mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg and fructo-oligosaccharides at 100 mg/kg for the gut. Seasoning closes the list: chamomile at 90 mg/kg, blueberries at 60 mg/kg, then curcuma, rosemary, citrus and cloves at 40 mg/kg apiece.

The marine omega 3 comes from salmon oil at 2%. On the added panel: vitamins A, D3 and E, biotin, choline chloride, zinc, iron, manganese, copper, iodine and selenium. Energy comes out at 405 kcal per 100g.

£6.00 a kilo, in 1kg, 3kg and 8kg bags.

What a small pup needs in the first weeks home is not what they need a few months later, so let the chart on the pack lead and keep revising as your pup fills out.