Calibra Life Fresh Beef Starter & Puppy review

Middle-of-the-road puppy kibble sits in our Good band. This bag clears that and comes out in our Excellent band, with protein and processing and nutritional balance reading Good, transparency Outstanding and value Excellent.

The reasons are all on the label. Beef is declared in two forms plus its own fat, the rice share is the lightest of the beef growth family, and the calcium figure is named down to the ingredient it comes from. Very little here is left to trust.

Ingredients, as declared: beef protein (29 %), fresh beef (26 %), rice (23 %), 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).

Beef is declared three ways on this list. Beef protein at 29% is a dried concentrate with its water already removed, and fresh beef at 26% is weighed wet. Beef fat at 10% supplies most of the energy, preserved with tocopherols rather than a synthetic antioxidant. The result is a recipe whose animal content, fat included, all comes from one species.

Protein converts to 33.0% of dry matter and fat to 18.7%, the strongest pairing in this family of bags, and energy reaches 398 kcal per 100g against 376 for the typical puppy dry food. A pup in the middle of the growth spurt uses that readily; a calmer one simply needs a smaller measure.

Rice at 23% is the starch, the lowest share the beef family uses, and carbohydrate converts to 39.5% of dry matter, which lands almost exactly on the 39.0% typical for a puppy kibble. Dried apple pulp at 6% is the fibre alongside it, and crude fibre stays modest at 2.0% of dry matter.

Calcium is where a growth food is made or lost, and this one prints it: egg shells at 1% giving 1.21% of dry matter. A growing skeleton works to a window, and that figure sits inside it. Big pup or small, the bag can be offered without a caveat attached.

The long-chain omega 3 that brain and eye development lean on comes from two places: 2% salmon oil from the sea and 0.3% algae oil from a plant source. Hydrolysed yeasts at 2% arrive pre-broken for easier absorption, and the gut package pairs mannan-oligosaccharides at 120 mg/kg with fructo-oligosaccharides at 70 mg/kg and an inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture.

The last entries are small but every one is named: dried rosemary and thyme at 100 mg/kg each, Mojave yucca at 80 mg/kg and dried blackcurrant at 0.2%. Behind them sits a fully dosed vitamin panel and a trace element set largely in organic forms, including zinc at 90 mg, iron at 75 mg and copper at 14 mg per kilo.

£4.99 a kilo, sold in 100g, 750g, 2.5kg and 12kg bags, plus a 20kg bag under Calibra's breeder label.

A growing dog's portions climb steeply and then level off. Take the bag's own chart as a starting point, then let the ribs and the waistline settle the final amount each week.