Calibra Expert Nutrition City review

On our scale this recipe reads Good, the same band a typical adult dry food achieves. Breadth earns its place here, not one headline. It has a named lead protein at a real percentage, a fully dosed vitamin and mineral panel using organic trace elements, and functional extras most foods at this level skip. Carbohydrate runs at an estimated 43.9% of dry matter, close to the typical 46.2%, so this is a conventional construction done carefully rather than a meat-heavy outlier.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken protein (35 %), rice (30 %), chicken protein hydrolysed (10 %), brewer´s rice (8 %), poultry fat (5 %, preserved with tocopherols), apple pulp dried (4 %), yeasts, salmon oil (2 %), hydrolysed chicken liver (2 %), fulvic acid (0.5 %), prebiotics (mannan-oligosaccharides 150 mg/kg, β-glucans 120 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides 100 mg/kg), glucosamine (260 mg/kg), dried rosemary & thyme (250 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (160 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (100 mg/kg), Lactobacillus acidophilus HA - 122 inactivated (15 × 109 cells/kg).

Chicken protein at 35% leads, with hydrolysed chicken protein at 10% and hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% behind it. Hydrolysed means broken down into small protein fragments, which here mostly serves digestibility and flavour. The one ambiguity is the poultry fat at 5%, which could come from any bird, a small but real gap in an otherwise well named list.

Rice at 30% and brewer's rice at 8% carry the starch. Brewer's rice is the broken grain left over from milling, a plainer cut of the same ingredient rather than anything to worry about, and dried apple pulp at 4% adds gentle fruit fibre.

The functional list is unusually long: prebiotic mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg, beta-glucans at 120 mg/kg and fructo-oligosaccharides at 100 mg/kg to feed the gut's good bacteria, with an inactivated Lactobacillus acidophilus culture on top. Mojave yucca at 100 mg/kg is the traditional inclusion for taking the edge off stool odour.

Glucosamine at 260 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 160 mg/kg make a genuine, if moderate, joint contribution. The added vitamins run deep, including vitamin C at 300 mg and L-carnitine at 250 mg. Organic forms of the trace minerals are used, the versions generally credited with better absorption, and every one carries a printed dose.

Salmon oil at 2% supplies marine omega 3s, and fulvic acid at 0.5% is the label's curiosity, a plant-derived organic acid Calibra includes across this range. Dried rosemary and thyme at 250 mg/kg close things out alongside natural tocopherol preservation.

£5.59 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 7kg bags.

Expect a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition to eat around 235 grams a day, close to £1.31, working from about 840 kcal daily (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the usual maintenance estimate). The label's own table suggests 180 grams for the same dog. Start between the two figures and let body condition decide.