Calibra Premium Line Adult: Beef review

Both varieties finish in our Good band, the same place the typical adult dry food sits. Transparency reads Outstanding on both labels, value reads Good on both, and the gap between them is small enough that flavour and your dog's history should drive the choice.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken protein 35 %, corn, oats 16 %, poultry fat 5 %, dried apple pulp 3 %, brewer's yeast, hydrolysed chicken liver 2 %, salmon oil 1 %, carrots 1 %, peas 1 %, dried parsley 0.5 %, dried kelp 0.4 % (Ascophyllum nodosum), glucosamine (260 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (160 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (150 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (80 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (80 mg/kg), β-glucans (40 mg/kg).

Each variety opens with a dried animal protein at 35%, the concentrated form and the reason protein holds up in the finished food. The catch is in the naming: the Beef bag's protein is chicken, while the Pork bag's is genuinely pork.

Corn and oats at 16% form the cereal base, with corn's percentage left unstated. Estimated carbohydrate works out to 49.1% of dry matter for the Beef recipe and 45.2% for the Pork, either side of the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Poultry fat at 5% is the added fat in both, species unspecified, with salmon oil at 1% bringing a measure of long-chain omega 3s. Dried apple pulp at 3%, carrots and peas at 1% each, parsley and kelp make up the plant matter.

The functional additions carry doses: glucosamine at 260 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 160 mg/kg for joints. The gut gets MOS at 150 mg/kg, FOS at 80 mg/kg and beta glucans at 40 mg/kg, with Mojave yucca at 80 mg/kg alongside. Brewer's yeast supplies natural B vitamins.

Palatants differ by bag: the Beef uses hydrolysed chicken liver, the Pork hydrolysed yeast. That makes the Pork the tidier label for a dog avoiding named chicken, though its unspecified poultry fat still stops short of a promise.

Sold as Beef, made from chicken: the ingredients list opens with chicken protein at 35% and no beef appears at any point, so treat the flavour name as branding rather than a species claim. It reads Good in our banding, uses hydrolysed chicken liver as its palatant, and runs the slightly leaner analysis of the pair at 14.3% fat in dry matter.

The Beef variety is £2.32 a kilo and the Pork £6.25 a kilo, both in 3kg and 12kg bags.

For a 15kg adult in moderate condition on the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), both work out near 226 grams daily. That is roughly £0.52 on the Beef and £1.41 on the Pork.