Calibra Premium Line Energy: Beef review

Both versions earn a place in our Good band. A typical adult dry food shares that Good band. What lifts these two towards the top of it is a meaty analysis and a set of genuinely dosed extras, with no single showpiece ingredient involved. The two versions end up close enough together that you may as well choose on the animal your dog gets on best with.

Ingredients, as declared: beef protein 40 %, corn, poultry fat 14 %, oats 14 %, dried apple pulp 2 %, brewer's yeast, hydrolysed yeast 2 %, salmon oil 2 %, carrots 1 %, peas 1 %, dried parsley 0.5 %, dried kelp 0.2 % (Ascophyllum nodosum), glucosamine (260 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (160 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (150 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (80 mg/kg), yucca Mojave (80 mg/kg), β-glucans (40 mg/kg).

Each version leads with its named animal as a protein concentrate declared at 40%, beef in one, chicken in the other. Being dried and protein-dense, it puts more into the analysis than fresh meat would. The beef reads 30% protein as fed and the chicken 29%. Estimated carbohydrate converts to 36.3% and 36.0% of dry matter respectively, comfortably below the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Oats come in at 14%. Corn sits above them in second place, with no percentage given. Both are conventional, well-tolerated cereals, with oats bringing useful fibre and minerals, though the undeclared corn share is the label's least transparent corner.

Poultry fat at 14% does the energy heavy lifting alongside salmon oil at 2%. Fat is what this recipe is built around, and it fuels the sustained output a working day demands. The poultry it comes from is never pinned to a species.

Every dose in the support package is printed. Glucosamine at 260 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 160 mg/kg cover the joints, then mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides at 80 mg/kg and beta-glucans at 40 mg/kg look after the gut. Brewer's yeast adds natural B vitamins, with dried kelp and parsley rounding out the tail.

Beef protein at 40% with hydrolysed yeast as the flavour lift, and the higher energy reading of the pair at 413 kcal per 100g. The label suggests 175 grams a day for a 15kg dog.

Per kilo the beef version works out at £3.55 and the chicken at £2.71, each sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 203 grams of the beef or 206 grams of the chicken a day. That assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), and it comes to £0.72 and £0.56 a day respectively. A dog in real work will need more, so feed to workload and waistline.