Calibra Life Junior Small & Medium Breed review

Our reading lands this one in the Good band, a touch above the middle of the puppy dry field, which sits in that band as well. Transparency reads Outstanding, while protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all sit lower, in our Good band. The reason is the cereal: estimated carbohydrate comes out at 38.1% of dry matter, close to the 39.0% usual for the category, and protein at 30.8% of dry matter is respectable rather than remarkable. What the scoring does reward is a label that names and numbers nearly everything it uses.

Ingredients, as declared: lamb protein (42 %), rice (26 %), poultry fat (12 %, preserved with tocopherols), brewer´s rice (10 %), apple pulp dried (3 %), yeasts, hydrolysed chicken liver (2 %), salmon oil (2 %), prebiotics (mannan-oligosaccharides 150 mg/kg, β-glucans 120 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides 100 mg/kg), dried rosemary & thyme (250 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (100 mg/kg), Lactobacillus acidophilus HA - 122 inactivated (15 × 109 cells/kg).

The 42% lamb protein is dried, with its water taken out before weighing. The declared share therefore carries into the finished kibble largely as printed. Lamb is a strongly flavoured, easily digested meat and a useful change of tack for a pup who has not got on with poultry, which is the real appeal of this bag.

Cereal does the structural work. Rice at 26% is joined by brewer's rice at 10%, the smaller broken grain from milling, and together they take the estimated carbohydrate to 38.1% of dry matter. That is a normal kibble starch load, with dried apple pulp at 3% adding gentle fibre on top of it.

Poultry fat at 12%, kept stable with tocopherols, and salmon oil at 2% carry the fats up to 19.8% of dry matter, with energy at 393 kcal per 100g. The salmon oil earns its place as the marine omega 3 source, though it is also why fish shows up on the allergen picture of a lamb led food.

Calcium converts to 1.76% of dry matter and ash to 8.6%, so this is a mineral rich recipe by any reading. Small and medium breed bone will use that quite happily, which is the job the bag is sold for. A big pup is a different case. Large and giant frames are reared to a tighter calcium level than this one.

The tail of the list does not coast. Mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg, beta glucans at 120 mg/kg and fructo-oligosaccharides at 100 mg/kg are printed with their doses. An inactivated Lactobacillus acidophilus culture follows them, and dried rosemary and thyme at 250 mg/kg and Mojave yucca at 100 mg/kg close it out. Vitamins and trace minerals are all listed with figures, the organic mineral forms included.

One qualification belongs on the lamb headline. Hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% is a palatant, the poultry fat names no bird, and the allergen picture reflects both, so a dog reacting to poultry is not clear of it here. That is worth knowing before the switch, and it takes nothing away from a bag whose lamb share is real and whose label is otherwise unusually forthcoming.

£4.54 a kilo, sold in 100g, 2.5kg and 12kg bags.

A growing pup's ration is a curve. It climbs while the frame is going up, and settles back once it is not. Read the bag's chart month by month, and let your hands on the ribs decide.