Calibra Life Junior Large Breed: Chicken review

The chicken comes out in our Excellent band with the lamb a rung below in Good, the band the middle of the puppy dry field occupies. The chicken is the one that breaks away from the pack. Transparency reads Outstanding on each, while protein and processing and nutritional balance land in Good.

That split is the honest summary. The sourcing and the declaration are the strong parts, with named meat proteins, printed calcium and dosed supplements, while the analysis is the more ordinary part once the rice is taken into account.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken protein (45 %), rice (22 %), poultry fat (10 %, preserved with tocopherols), brewer´s rice (7 %), hydrolysed poultry protein (5 %), apple pulp dried (4 %), yeasts, hydrolysed chicken liver (2 %), salmon oil (2 %), prebiotics (mannan-oligosaccharides 150 mg/kg, β-glucans 120 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides 100 mg/kg), glucosamine (300 mg/kg), dried rosemary & thyme (250 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (200 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (100 mg/kg), Lactobacillus acidophilus HA - 122 inactivated (15 × 109 cells/kg).

Both bags lead on a concentrated meat protein rather than a fresh meat, chicken protein at 45% in one and lamb protein at 40% in the other. Both are dried, water-free forms. The declared share and the share in the kibble stay close together. Fresh meat of the same printed size could not manage that.

Rice does the binding in both recipes, joined by brewer's rice, the smaller broken grain left over from rice milling, which behaves much the same way in the bowl. Dried apple pulp at 4% adds a gentle fibre. Taken together the starch load is moderate, and that is the main reason nutritional balance reads as it does.

Where the label goes quiet is the poultry fat, 10% of the chicken bag and 9% of the lamb. It is a perfectly good energy source, and the tocopherol preservation is the kind you want to see. The bird behind it is not named, and neither is the species in the hydrolysed poultry protein of the chicken recipe. For a pup with a simple preference that is nothing at all; for a genuine exclusion diet it is a gap to be aware of.

The marine omega 3 that brain, eye and coat development draw on comes from salmon oil at 2%. Palatability is the job of hydrolysed chicken liver at 2%, broken down so that even a hesitant pup finds the kibble worth eating. That liver is also why chicken sits in the allergen picture of the lamb bag.

The joint support is dosed where it counts, with glucosamine at 300 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 200 mg/kg in both recipes. That is the pairing owners look for while a large frame is still forming. The prebiotic set runs to three entries, mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg, beta-glucans at 120 mg/kg and fructo-oligosaccharides at 100 mg/kg, with an inactivated Lactobacillus acidophilus culture alongside them.

Both bags declare calcium, the chicken at 1.54% of dry matter and the lamb at 1.43%. Both figures sit inside the window large breed growth works to. Vitamin D3 at 1,750 IU per kilo governs how well that calcium is used. The trace elements are largely in organic forms, with zinc at 120 mg, iron at 90 mg and manganese at 40 mg per kilo, and the body generally absorbs those more readily.

Chicken protein at 45% is the largest meat share of the pair, backed by hydrolysed poultry protein at 5% and hydrolysed chicken liver at 2%. Rice at 22% with brewer's rice at 7% carries the starch, energy lands at 387 kcal per 100g and fat converts to 17.6% of dry matter. Calcium converts to 1.54%, the higher of the two figures, and carbohydrate to 41.7%. It is the more meat-forward bag of the two, and the one to choose if your pup does well on poultry.

£3.96 a kilo for the chicken recipe and £4.31 a kilo for the lamb, both sold in 100g, 2.5kg and 12kg bags, with a 20kg lamb bag also listed under Calibra's breeder name.

A large breed puppy outgrows any single daily figure. The amount climbs through the early months, then comes back down as growth slows. Lean on the chart printed on the bag and keep reading your pup's condition as the months pass.