Canine Choice Puppy Large review

Canine Choice Puppy Large finishes in our Good band, level with the middle of the puppy kibble field. Protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all read Good, with transparency reading Outstanding. Meat at the head of the list, a grain free base, dosed prebiotics and a printed probiotic all count in its favour. What stands between this and a higher placing is largely the calcium line the label leaves empty.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken (34%), dehydrated chicken (21%), sweet potato (15%), peas (9%), hydrolyzed chicken liver (5%), apple pulp (5%), dehydrated carrot (0.32%, equivalent to 3% carrots), dehydrated cranberries (0.08% equivalent to 0.75% cranberries), chicken fat, brewer's yeast, fish oil, minerals, chicory (source of fos), mannan-oligosaccharides (mos), camomile, parsley, rosehips, sea algae, rosemary, cloves, glucosamine (350mg/kg), cartilage (a source of chondroitin 250mg/kg), yucca schidigera.

The chicken comes in two forms, fresh at 34% and dehydrated at 21%. The fresh portion goes in wet and shrinks in the oven, whereas the dehydrated portion arrives dry, which is why its 21% is much nearer to what the bag really contains. Hydrolysed chicken liver at 5% is there mostly for taste, which is a fair reason for it to be there, and chicken fat follows behind. Protein is declared at 29.0% and fat at 18.0%.

Canine Choice sells this as a large breed puppy food. Large breed puppies are precisely the dogs whose calcium intake wants watching, because too much of it through the fast growing months causes more trouble than too little. No calcium figure is given anywhere on the pack, so the promise on the front cannot be checked against the panel on the back. Feeding to the guide and keeping a big pup on the lean side therefore matter more. Asking the maker about it before you commit is a reasonable thing to do.

Starch duty falls to sweet potato at 15%, with peas at 9% behind it, and apple pulp at 5% adds fibre. Dehydrated carrot at 0.32% is the label's own equivalent of 3% fresh carrots, and dehydrated cranberries at 0.08% the equivalent of 0.75% fresh. That is honest arithmetic on the maker's part, even if the amounts are small. Moisture is not declared, so the dry matter column uses our standard 8% assumption for a kibble, on which carbohydrate converts to 37.2% against the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food.

The supporting cast is a thoughtful one. Chicory supplies FOS and mannan-oligosaccharides supply MOS on the prebiotic side, brewer's yeast brings B vitamins, and fish oil covers the marine omega 3 that a growing brain and coat use. Glucosamine at 350 mg/kg and cartilage as a source of chondroitin at 250 mg/kg handle the joints, with yucca in support.

The additive panel is fully quantified, with vitamin E at 600 mg/kg, vitamin C at 300 mg/kg and zinc at 108 mg/kg among the printed figures. Tocopherol extracts of vegetable oils at 135 mg/kg keep the fats fresh. The Bacillus subtilis culture is a genuine inclusion rather than a mention, listed with its strain in the zootechnical section.

Energy is declared at 395 kcal per 100g, comfortably above the 376 typical of a puppy kibble, and fat at 18.0% is where much of that comes from. A big pup in a growth spurt will use it, and a quieter one will want their meals weighed rather than judged by eye.

£5.42 a kilo, sold in a single 12kg bag.

There is no fixed daily ration for a growing dog, least of all a large breed one. Work from the pack's chart for the adult weight you are expecting, and check it against how your pup is filling out every fortnight or so.