Calibra Life Fresh Beef Junior Small & Medium review

Set against the wider puppy dry field, this bag finishes in our Good band, level with the middle of that field. Its pillars sit at Good for protein and processing, for nutritional balance and for value, rising to Outstanding on transparency. The outcome rests on what the label tells you, with no single standout number behind it.

What carries it is the split beef construction and a calcium figure printed in full with its source named. The rice sitting behind them is the reason it does not climb further, and the ingredient notes take that up below.

Ingredients, as declared: beef protein (28 %), fresh beef (26 %), rice (24 %), beef fat (preserved with tocopherols, 10 %), dried apple pulp (6 %), hydrolysed yeasts (2 %), salmon oil (2 %), egg shells (a source of calcium, 1 %), pea flour, algae oil (0.3 %, Schizochytrium limacinum), dried blackcurrant (0.2 %), mannan-oligosaccharides (120 mg/kg), dried rosemary (100 mg/kg), dried thyme (100 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (80 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (70 mg/kg), inactivated bacteria and parts thereof (Lactobacillus helveticus HA - 122, 15 x 109 cells/kg).

The beef arrives in two states, which is worth decoding. Beef protein at 28% is a dried concentrate with its water already gone, so the finished kibble gets close to the printed figure. Fresh beef at 26% is weighed wet and shrinks during cooking. Beef fat at 10% completes the picture and is preserved with tocopherols, the natural vitamin E route.

Rice at 24% is the binder and the main energy carrier alongside that fat. It is an easy cereal for a young dog to digest, though it does take carbohydrate to 42.8% of dry matter where the typical puppy dry food sits at 39.0%. Dried apple pulp at 6% brings a gentle fibre with it, and crude fibre stays low at 2.2% of dry matter, which most young digestions take in their stride.

Calcium is the line that decides whether a growth food is doing its job, and here it is both sourced and declared: egg shells at 1%, converting to 1.21% of dry matter. A growing skeleton works to a range, and that figure sits inside it. A generic mineral premix would not have told you as much. Naming the source is the kind of detail that separates a considered recipe from a competent one.

Fat converts to 17.6% of dry matter and energy reaches 392 kcal per 100g, which makes this a richer bag than the puppy dry average. For a small or medium pup in the thick of growing that is useful; for a placid one it simply means the scoop wants weighing.

Brain and eye development draw on long-chain omega 3, and it arrives here twice over: salmon oil at 2% from the sea, algae oil at 0.3% from a plant. Hydrolysed yeasts at 2% are pre-broken for absorption, and the gut support runs to mannan-oligosaccharides at 120 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides at 70 mg/kg and an inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture.

Dried rosemary and thyme at 100 mg/kg each, Mojave yucca at 80 mg/kg and dried blackcurrant at 0.2% close the recipe as flavour and antioxidant touches. Behind them the vitamin panel is fully dosed and the trace elements are largely organic forms, with zinc at 90 mg, iron at 75 mg and manganese at 30 mg per kilo.

£4.99 a kilo, in 2.5kg and 12kg bags, with a 20kg bag sold under the Calibra breeder name.

A growing dog's ration is never one number for long. The bag prints a chart, so start there, weigh what you serve, and let your pup's condition tell you when to move up a step or ease back.