Calibra Verve Adult Medium & Large Breed review

This lands with us in our Excellent band, a step clear of the Good band that holds the typical adult dry food. Transparency reads Outstanding with the other three pillars all Good, and the recipe earns its position the honest way: named fish, restrained starch and an additive table where everything is measured rather than merely mentioned.

Ingredients, as declared: fresh deboned salmon (30 %), herring protein (30 %), potatoes (13 %), poultry fat, pumpkin (4 %), peas (3 %), apple pulp dried (2 %), yeasts, hydrolysed chicken liver (2 %), salmon oil (2 %), kelp (0.2 %, Ascophyllum nodosum), pineapple dried (0.1 %), prebiotics (mannan-oligosaccharides 150 mg/kg, β-glucans 120 mg/kg, fructo-oligosaccharides 100 mg/kg), glucosamine (260 mg/kg), chondroitine sulphate (160 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (100 mg/kg), Boswellia serrata dried (80 mg/kg), green-lipped mussels extract (Perna canaliculus, 50 mg/kg).

Fresh deboned salmon at 30% and herring protein at 30% split the animal side evenly between fresh fish and a concentrated dried one. Because the dried herring holds its weight through cooking, the finished analysis is properly meaty: protein at 33.3% of dry matter, and estimated carbohydrate at 37.8% against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

The starch comes from potatoes at 13%, backed by pumpkin at 4% and peas at 3%. Kelp at 0.2% brings a natural source of iodine, and dried apple pulp and pineapple sit at trace levels.

The fats deserve a note. Salmon oil at 2% adds to the omega 3s already in the fish, but the main added fat is poultry fat with no species named, and hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% does the flavour work. Neither will trouble most dogs, and both matter if you chose a fish recipe specifically to escape poultry.

The joint stack mirrors the large breed recipe: glucosamine at 260 mg/kg, chondroitin sulphate at 160 mg/kg, Boswellia serrata at 80 mg/kg and green-lipped mussel extract at 50 mg/kg. Trace minerals come in organic chelated forms, fully dosed, alongside a complete B-vitamin suite and vitamin C at 250 mg/kg.

£6.35 a kilo, sold in 100g, 2kg and 12kg sizes.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 226 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £1.43 a day. The label's own table suggests 170 grams at that weight, so treat the two as bounds and feed to condition.