Clinivet Puppy review

The band here is Good, the same one the typical puppy dry food sits in. Nutritional balance reads Good and transparency Excellent, and the analysis is genuinely decent for growth, with protein converting to 32.6% of dry matter and fat to 21.7%. The drag is protein and processing, which reads Average: the meat and the fat are declared as poultry, with no bird named. Calcium goes unprinted too, and on a food offered for every adult size that leaves the biggest growth question of all unanswered.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry Meal (37%), Brown Rice (24%), Poultry Fat (10%), Maize, Sugar Beet Pulp, Oats, Brewers Yeast, Fish Meal, Linseed, Dried Egg Powder, Minerals, Salmon Oil, Mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine (200mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (200mg/kg), Chondroitin sulphate (150mg/kg).

Poultry meal at 37% is the largest single entry. Its water came out in the making, so what it declares is close to what it puts in the bowl. What the word poultry will not tell you is which bird, since the term covers chicken, turkey, duck and goose interchangeably. Most pups will never care. One with a suspected intolerance needs a label that commits.

Brown rice at 24% leads the grains, with maize and oats to follow, and sugar beet pulp adds the fibre. The starch total is genuinely modest for a kibble, converting to an estimated 33.7% of dry matter against the 39.0% a typical puppy dry food carries. That leaves more of the bowl to protein and fat.

Poultry fat at 10% is high up the list, and it shows in an analysis declaring 20.0% fat, or 21.7% of dry matter. Fat is the densest energy a growing dog can be given and a young dog in a growth spurt uses it well, though a placid pup will need the scoop levelled off rather than heaped.

The parts worth having sit around the middle of the list. Marine fats come from fish meal and salmon oil, and whole linseed covers the plant form of omega 3. Dried egg powder is a compact high quality protein, and brewers yeast brings the B vitamins.

Ash is declared at 8.0%, or 8.7% of dry matter, so the mineral content is generous. What is missing is the breakdown, because no calcium figure is printed at all. On a food listed from toy pups up to giant ones, that is the single line a large breed owner would most want in front of them. Big-breed rearing claims need a number, and this label does not carry one.

The tail is better than the headline. Both prebiotics are named on the list, mannan-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides, with yucca schidigera extract after them. The joint package is dosed in print, with glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 200 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 150 mg/kg. The added panel is dosed too: vitamin A at 17,344 IU, vitamin D3 at 1,167 IU, vitamin E at 130 IU, vitamin C at 124 mg and beta carotene at 1.46 mg. Chelated zinc comes at 327 mg and selenium yeast at 95.65 mg per kilo.

£3.36 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg, 7kg and 14kg bags, with a 14kg breeder pack listed too.

Feeding a puppy is a weekly recalibration rather than a set amount, since what a pup needs depends both on their age and on the adult they are heading towards. Use the maker's chart as your starting point and let body condition do the fine tuning from there.