Burns Puppy Original Chicken & Rice review

The band here is Good, level with the typical puppy kibble, and transparency comes out Outstanding. Nutritional balance reads Average, with protein and processing and value both at Good. The shape of the recipe explains it. The two rices take second and third place, oats and peas follow, and a single chicken inclusion between 30% and 31% supplies all the animal protein in the bag.

Set against that, the things this label gets right are not small. Chicken is the only animal in it, which makes the food genuinely useful for elimination work. The analysis is declared in full and the additives are dosed line by line. It is a food built to be tolerated rather than to impress on paper, and there is a real puppy at the end of that decision.

Ingredients, as declared: 6kg and 12kg Recipe: Chicken Meal (30%); Brown Rice (22%); White Rice (22%); Oats; Peas; Chicken Oil; Sunflower Oil; Seaweed; Minerals. 2kg Recipe: Dried Chicken (31%), Brown Rice (22%), White Rice (22%), Oats, Peas, Chicken Oil, Sunflower Oil, Seaweed, Minerals, Chicory Extract (Prebiotic FOS 0.1%).

The chicken is the headline and it deserves to be. In the 6kg and 12kg bags it is chicken meal at 30%; in the 2kg bag it is dried chicken at 31%. Either way the water is out of the meat before it enters the mixer. The printed share therefore holds up broadly as stated in the finished kibble, where a fresh meat inclusion would shrink away. Chicken oil further down is the named animal fat, and nothing else on the list comes from an animal at all.

That last point is the reason to look at this bag twice. Sunflower oil and seaweed are plant. So are the peas, oats and rice, and the minerals are minerals. For an owner running a chicken only trial, or simply avoiding beef, lamb and fish, this is a genuinely single animal food. No unspecified oil turns up at the bottom of the list to spoil it.

Brown rice and white rice at 22% each are doing the structural work, with oats adding soft fibre and B vitamins and peas bringing a little plant protein and a spread of antioxidants. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 50.0% of dry matter as a consequence, and protein and fat convert to 26.1% and 13.0%. This is a food that fills a puppy up gently rather than loading them with energy.

Seaweed brings iodine and trace minerals to the tail of the list. In the 2kg recipe, chicory extract adds prebiotic fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.1%, food for the bacteria that keep a young digestion in order. The additive panel is dosed in print, with taurine at 1000mg per kilo and copper, manganese and zinc as amino acid chelates, forms that tend to be taken up more readily than plain mineral salts.

Calcium converts to 1.74% of dry matter. It is the figure to weigh if your puppy will finish large or giant. Too much calcium during the fastest growth is the classic way to store up trouble in big frames. For anything from a toy up to a medium breed pup, it reads far more comfortably. The rest of the analysis is complete at 24.0% protein, 12.0% fat, 3.0% fibre, 7.0% ash and 8.0% moisture, with only the 347 kcal per 100g energy figure standing in as our estimate.

£5.58 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

A growing dog's needs move as fast as the dog does. Start from the bag's chart for their age and their expected size, then correct by feel as the weeks pass.