Calibra

Calibra Premium Line Sensitive review

Name: Calibra Calibra Premium Line Sensitive
Brand: Calibra

59.2/100Good

DryAdult

Calibra Sensitive puts lamb at the front of a gentle, cereal-based recipe aimed at dogs whose stomachs complain easily. Lamb protein is declared at 26% over rice and oats, the prebiotics are dosed on the label, and the whole thing aims at quiet digestibility with no drama. One honest caveat comes with the name: a little chicken liver and salmon oil ride along, so read this as a settled-stomach recipe and not a strict allergy tool. Our scoring reads it as Good, the everyday middle of the market.

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Our view

Likely to suit

For the dog whose dinner too often ends up back on your carpet, this keeps things deliberately plain.

Dogs with easily upset stomachs, since lamb and well-cooked cereals are chosen for gentle digestion
Owners looking for lamb at the top of the label, not the usual chicken
Gut-sensitive dogs, with mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg and fructo-oligosaccharides at 80 mg/kg feeding the friendly bacteria
Mixed-size households, where one kibble covers the toy breeds and the giants alike

Worth watching

The name promises a lot, and there are a few places where the label draws the line.

This cannot serve as a single-protein elimination diet for a confirmed chicken or fish allergy, because hydrolysed chicken liver appears alongside salmon oil and unnamed poultry fat
Corn, rice and oats make this a firmly grain-inclusive recipe, worth knowing if your dog does better without cereals
Sensitive here means gentle rather than hypoallergenic, so a dog with diagnosed food allergies still needs a vet-led plan alongside any food choice

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

59.2/100Good

Protein and processingAverage

Nutritional balanceAverage

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueGood

The Details

Dog fit

For the dog whose dinner too often ends up back on your carpet, this keeps things deliberately plain. The name promises a lot, and there are a few places where the label draws the line.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Lamb

The score, in context

This lands in our Good band, the same band the typical adult dry food occupies. Read that as solidly conventional rather than poor: the lamb declaration is honest, the extras are dosed in print, and nothing on the label rings alarm bells. What holds it to the middle of the field is the size of the cereal share and a supporting cast that leans on unnamed poultry fat.

What's in it

Ingredients, as declared: lamb protein 26 %, corn, rice 20 %, oats 14 %, poultry fat 4 %, dried apple pulp 2 %, 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).

Named ingredients

Lamb protein 26 %, corn, rice 20 %, oats 14 %, poultry fat 4 %, dried apple pulp 2 %, 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).

Nutritional additives

| Additive | per 1 kg | |---|---| | vitamin A (3a672a) | 12,000 I.U. | | vitamin D3 (3a671) | 1,000 I.U. | | vitamin E (3a700) | 300 mg | | biotin (3a880) | 0.5 mg | | copper (3b406) | 12 mg | | zinc (3b606) | 65 mg | | iron (3b106) | 60 mg | | manganese (3b504) | 30 mg | | iodine (3b201) | 0.5 mg | | selenium (3b810) | 0.12 mg | - **Antioxidants:** tocopherol extracts from vegetable oil (1b306(i)), ascorbyl palmitate (1b304) & rosemary extract.

Ingredient notes

Lamb protein at 26% is dried and concentrated. That is how a modest-sounding percentage still delivers protein at 27.5% of dry matter. Lamb itself is one of the easier meats on a dog's digestion and rarely a hard sell at the bowl.

The starch comes from corn, rice at 20% and oats at 14%. Rice and oats are the classic settled-stomach cereals, gentle once cooked. Estimated carbohydrate finishes at 46.3% of dry matter, almost exactly the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Palatability is handled by hydrolysed chicken liver at 2%, and the fats come from poultry fat at 4% and salmon oil at 1%. All three earn their keep in feeding terms, but they are also why this recipe cannot claim to be lamb and nothing else. A merely delicate stomach will not mind that; a genuinely allergic dog might.

The gut support is the point of the recipe: mannan-oligosaccharides at 150 mg/kg and fructo-oligosaccharides at 80 mg/kg as prebiotics, beta-glucans at 40 mg/kg alongside, and brewer's yeast for natural B vitamins. The joint pair of glucosamine at 260 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 160 mg/kg carries over from Calibra's other cereal-based recipes.

Price and value

£3.62 a kilo, in 3kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 225 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £0.81 a day. The label's own table puts the same dog at 160 grams. Let the waistline decide where between the two your dog settles.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

374 kcal/100g

Protein

25%

Fat

14%

Fibre

2.8%

Ash

Moisture

Dry weight

Protein

27.5%

Fat

15.4%

Fibre

3.1%

Ash

7.7%

Carbs

46.3%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

28%

Carbs

49.9%

Veg

3.4%

Oils

Other

13.7%

Pricing & size