Canine Choice Premium Puppy review

Our reading puts this kibble in our Good band, which is also where the typical puppy dry food finishes, and it lands right on that middle mark. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good, with transparency Outstanding and value Good as well. What holds it steady rather than higher is the make-up of the recipe, where cereal and pea protein take on work that meat does in the foods placed above it.

Ingredients, as declared: 40% Chicken (dried chicken 26%, freshly prepared chicken 14%), rice (30%), barley (11%), chicken fat (5%), pea protein (5%), peas (3%), beet pulp (3%), salmon oil (1%), linseed (1%), minerals, chicory (source of prebiotic fos) (1000mg/kg), mannanoligosaccharides (source of prebiotic mos) (1000mg/kg), glucosamine (500mg/kg), yucca (100mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate (100mg/kg).

Chicken is declared at 40% and helpfully broken down: dried chicken at 26% with freshly prepared chicken at 14%. The dried portion is the one doing the heavy lifting, since it goes in without its water and so what the label promises is close to what the baked kibble holds. Protein comes out at 29.0% on the analysis.

Rice at 30% and barley at 11% form the base. Both cook down to starch that dogs handle easily, and barley brings useful fibre and micronutrients along with it. Barley does contain gluten, which only matters if gluten is something you are keeping out of your puppy's diet.

Moisture is missing from the declared analysis, so the dry matter figures here use our standard 8% assumption for a kibble. On that footing protein converts to 31.5% and carbohydrate to 42.9%. That carbohydrate figure is a little above the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food, and a recipe built on two cereals lands there.

Pea protein at 5% sits ahead of the whole peas at 3%. This is plant protein, and dogs make less of plant protein than they do of the animal sort. So a slice of the declared 29.0% is coming from the peas.

The supplement end of the list is properly quantified. Chicory as a source of FOS at 1000 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 1000 mg/kg look after the gut. Glucosamine at 500 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 100 mg/kg look after the joints. Yucca at 100 mg/kg is there to help with the smell in the garden. Beet pulp at 3% adds a gentle, well tolerated fibre, while salmon oil and linseed at 1% each cover omega 3 from sea and soil.

The added vitamins and minerals are listed with doses, including vitamin E at 150 mg/kg, zinc at 75 mg/kg, iron at 50 mg/kg and manganese at 40 mg/kg. The pack declares energy at 380 kcal per 100g, so no estimate is needed. That sits right beside the 376 typical for a puppy kibble, and portions will feel familiar if you are moving across from another growth food.

£5.00 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 10kg bags.

A growing pup's daily amount is never settled for long. Use the pack's chart, matching their age to the adult weight you expect, and look at it again every few weeks as they fill out.