Calibra Life Junior Small Breed review

This bag earns the Excellent band, one rung above the middle of the puppy dry field, which lands in Good. What lifts it is balance rather than any single flourish: protein and processing reads Good, nutritional balance Excellent, transparency Outstanding and value Excellent, so nothing here is propped up by anything else. The analysis is the most persuasive part, with protein at 35.2% of dry matter, fat at 23.1% and an estimated carbohydrate of 31.1%, a genuinely meat forward shape for a kibble at this size.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken protein (45 %), rice (20 %), poultry fat (13 %, preserved with tocopherols), brewer´s rice (7 %), hydrolysed poultry protein (5 %), 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).

Chicken protein at 45% is the dried form, its water already parted with before the recipe is weighed. The headline therefore survives into the finished kibble, and the declared protein of 32.0% converts to 35.2% of dry matter, a properly meaty reading for a growth food.

The starch side is where this recipe separates itself from the pack. Rice at 20% with brewer's rice at 7% is a lighter cereal load than most kibbles run, and estimated carbohydrate lands at 31.1% of dry matter where the typical puppy dry food sits at 39.0%. Grain is in the recipe, then, and a grain free household should know that.

Poultry fat at 13% and salmon oil at 2% take the fat to 23.1% of dry matter and energy to 410 kcal per 100g. Small breed puppies burn energy quickly against their size and eat in tiny amounts, so a dense bowl is the sensible design here.

Calcium converts to 1.65% of dry matter, which growing small breed bone will use happily, and ash at 7.5% of dry matter reflects that generous mineral package. A large or giant breed pup is grown to a tighter calcium level, so this figure belongs to the size on the front of the bag.

The tail of the list is dosed properly. The prebiotic trio is printed in milligrams, an inactivated Lactobacillus acidophilus culture sits behind it, and dried rosemary and thyme at 250 mg/kg and Mojave yucca at 100 mg/kg finish things off. Dried apple pulp at 3% supplies gentle fibre and the vitamin and trace mineral table carries a figure on every line.

The label's soft spot is the same one the range shares. Poultry fat and hydrolysed poultry protein name a family of birds, not one bird. Chicken comes in again through hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% as a palatant. An owner running a genuine exclusion diet has more to read than the headline. Everyone else can take it as a chicken recipe with a well built supporting cast.

£4.50 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 6kg bags.

Feed to the chart on the pack. A small breed pup reaches its adult size early, so the daily amount rises for a while and then needs bringing back down as soon as growth slows. For these breeds that comes round sooner than owners expect.