Burns

Burns Grain-Free Puppy/Junior review

Name: Burns Grain-Free Puppy/Junior
Brand: Burns

53.9/100Good

DryPuppy

A deliberately gentle puppy food in our Good band, with an ingredients list you can read in a breath. Potato at 47% carries it and dried duck at 28% is the only meat. Calcium is declared at 1.32% of dry matter, well placed for a growing skeleton of any size.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Puppies with an easily upset gut. Duck is the only meat and the list is barely ten entries
Large and giant breed pups, with calcium comfortably inside the growth range
Grain-free homes. Buckwheat is a seed, not a cereal
One bag from puppy through the junior stage
Calmer growers, at an estimated 344 kcal per 100g against 376 for a typical puppy kibble

Worth watching

Carbohydrate at 49.4% of dry matter against the 39.0% typical of a puppy kibble
Protein modest for a growing dog at 26.4% of dry matter, so feed a busy pup to the top of the chart
Salmon oil on the list, so it cannot anchor a fish-free elimination diet

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

53.9/100Good

Protein and processingAverage

Nutritional balanceAverage

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueGood

The details

Dog fit

Listed for puppies of every finishing size. A puppy's ration never stays fixed, so start from the bag's chart for age and adult size and adjust by condition week to week.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Puppy

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Duck

The score, in context

Burns Grain-Free Puppy/Junior 53.9

All one Good. Typical dry food: Good.

The potato that holds the score down is also the reason the food suits a pup whose stomach objects to richer bowls.

What's in it

Potato47%The backbone: a clean, well tolerated starch that shapes the analysis more than the meat does.
Dried duck28%Survives into the bag much as printed. Useful when chicken or beef has already caused a reaction.
Buckwheat12%Not wheat and not a cereal: the seed of a plant related to rhubarb.
Duck fatThe named animal fat.
Peas
Sunflower oilA light plant oil, rich in vitamin E.
Seaweed, mineralsIodine and trace minerals.
Salmon oilMarine omega 3 for brain and coat, and the reason fish goes on the allergy checklist.
Chicory extract0.1% FOSPrebiotic, for a young gut.

Taurine at 1000mg per kilo, with copper, manganese and zinc as chelates that tend to absorb more readily than plain sulphates.

Calories are not declared, so the energy figure is our estimate.

Named ingredients

Potato (47%), Dried Duck (28%), Buckwheat (12%), Duck Fat, Peas, Sunflower Oil, Seaweed, Minerals, Salmon Oil, Chicory Extract (Prebiotic FOS 0.1%).

Against the range

One short, gentle growth recipe: potato, dried duck as the only meat, buckwheat, then fats and a few supporting entries. The analysis is fully declared apart from energy, and the additive panel is dosed in print.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

343.5 kcal/100g

Estimated using Modified Atwater factors*

Protein

24%

Fat

12%

Fibre

Ash

Moisture

Dry weight

Protein

26.4%

Fat

13.2%

Fibre

2.2%

Ash

8.8%

Carbs

49.4%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

28%

Carbs

63.9%

Veg

1.6%

Oils

5.8%

Other

0.7%

Pricing & size