Clinivet Large Breed Puppy review

Our Good band is where this one lands, level with the typical puppy dry food. What keeps it from climbing is protein and processing, which reads Average because the meat, the fat and the digest are all declared as poultry, with no species named. Unnamed meat is the heaviest drag a label can carry with us. Nutritional balance reads Good and transparency Outstanding, and the analysis itself is respectable for growth, with protein converting to 30.4% of dry matter and carbohydrate to an estimated 38.0%, just under the 39.0% typical. The distance between the reading and the recipe is a naming problem more than a nutrition one.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry Meal (min. 32%), Brown Rice (min. 23%), Maize, Poultry Fat (min. 9%), Sugar Beet Pulp, Oats, Brewers Yeast, Fish Meal, Poultry Digest (min. 3%), Linseed, Egg Powder, Minerals, Salmon Oil, Prebiotic Mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), Prebiotic Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), Glucosmaine (min. 0.035%), Methylsulphonylmethane (min. 0.035%), Chondroitin Sulphate (min. 0.02%), Yucca Schidigera Extract.

Poultry meal at a minimum 32% opens the list. Water is already out of a meal, so with a third of the bag arriving in that form, the printed meat share is close to what reaches the finished kibble. The catch is one word. Poultry covers chicken, turkey, duck and goose without committing to any of them, and it can be varied between batches. For a robust pup that is a technicality; for one prone to reacting, it removes the ability to work out what happened.

The main grain is brown rice at a minimum 23%, followed by maize and oats, and sugar beet pulp brings the fibre. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 38.0% of dry matter. That is marginally under the 39.0% typical of a puppy kibble, so the starch load here is unremarkable rather than heavy. Fibre is declared at 3.0%, which most young digestions handle comfortably.

Poultry fat at a minimum 9% and poultry digest at a minimum 3% are doing two different jobs. The fat is energy and palatability, and it pushes the declared fat to 18.0%, or 19.6% of dry matter, which is what you want behind a rapidly growing frame. The digest is a savoury coating sprayed on to make the kibble worth eating, and it works, though like the fat it names no bird.

The better corners of the list sit in the middle of it. Fish meal and salmon oil bring marine fats, and whole linseed adds the plant side of omega 3. Egg powder is a small but genuinely high quality protein, and brewers yeast carries B vitamins and a savoury note dogs tend to like.

Calcium is declared and converts to 1.96% of dry matter, with ash at 8.7%. That is a mineral-rich food, and for a recipe sold specifically for large and giant breed growth it sits above the level big-breed feeding plans normally aim at. This is no reason to leave the food on the shelf. It is the number to take to your vet if you are rearing a dog who will finish heavy.

The tail is more considered than the headline suggests. Mannan-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides are both named as prebiotics, glucosamine and methylsulphonylmethane come at a minimum 0.035% each with chondroitin sulphate at 0.02%, and yucca schidigera extract closes the list. The added panel is fully dosed, with vitamin A at 17,344 iu, vitamin D3 at 1,167 iu, vitamin E at 130 iu, vitamin C at 123 mg and beta-carotene at 1.46 mg per kilo. Chelated zinc at 327 mg and selenium yeast at 95.65 mg sit alongside them.

£3.36 a kilo, sold in 7kg and 14kg bags, with a 14kg breeder pack listed alongside them.

A puppy's daily amount is a moving target, because growth is not a steady state. Weigh what you give, watch the ribs and the waist as the weeks go by, and let the maker's growth chart set the direction instead of settling on one number and staying there.