Concept For Life Large Breed Junior review

On the same scale every dry food meets, this one finishes in our Good band, the same band that the broad middle of adult dry food occupies. It is still the strongest member of this brand's large breed range. Protein and processing reads Average here, as it does right across the family, protein converts to 33.7% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 40.7%, well under the 46.2% a typical adult dry food runs. What holds it back is naming. Poultry protein is the largest entry, with no bird named, and poultry fat does the same thing. Lignocellulose supplies fibre as a purified powder. Nutritional balance and transparency both come out Good.

Ingredients, as declared: 30% Poultry Protein (Rich in Chicken, Partly Dried and Hydrolysed), 20% Fresh Chicken Meat, Rice, Maize, Poultry Fat, Dried Beet Pulp (Desugared), Linseed, Lignocellulose, Sodium Chloride, Brewer's Yeast (Dried), Egg (Dried), 0.2% Salmon Oil, 0.2% Yeast Extract (Rich in Beta-Glucans and Mannan-Oligosaccharides), 0.2% Sunflower Oil, 0.1% Chicory Inulin, 0.1% Aronia Extract (Dried, Rich in Polyphenols), 0.04% Glucosamine, 0.02% Chondroitin Sulphate, 0.02% Extracts from Hops and Green Tea (Dried, Rich in Flavonoids), Antioxidants.

Poultry protein at 30% leads, partly dried and hydrolysed, with fresh chicken meat at 20% behind it. Between them they make this the meatiest recipe in the brand's large breed line, and it shows in the declared protein of 31%, which converts to 33.7% of dry matter.

The starch is rice and maize. Carbohydrate, estimated at 40.7% of dry matter, is the lowest in this family and comfortably under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Fat is declared at 15.0% and energy at 388 kcal per 100g. Moisture is absent from the label, so the dry matter figures here assume 8%.

The yeast extract at 0.2% is the entry that marks this out as a growth recipe. Beta glucans and mannan oligosaccharides are fermentable fractions of the yeast cell wall, the sort of thing that helps friendly bacteria establish themselves in a young gut. Chicory inulin at 0.1% works the same territory.

Aronia extract at 0.1% and the hops and green tea extracts at 0.02% are antioxidant entries, present in amounts that make a modest contribution rather than a headline. The marine omega 3s are in the salmon oil at 0.2%, and linseed supplies the plant kind. The vitamin panel is set for growth, with vitamin A at 15000 IU and choline chloride at 3000mg/kg.

Glucosamine at 0.04% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.02% are declared, and both are worth having on a food for a dog whose joints are being asked to carry a body that changes shape every month. Zinc appears twice, 100mg/kg as the sulphate and 60mg/kg as a glycine chelate, and a dog takes the chelate up more readily.

Calcium is the single figure this label leaves out. On a large breed growth food that is the figure owners most want to see, because a big skeleton is sensitive to too much of it during the fastest growth. Nothing on the ingredient list points to an added calcium salt, and the analysis stops at ash. If you are raising a giant breed puppy, a call to the maker before you settle in is worth making.

Sold in 1.5kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, an adult dog of 15kg in moderate condition would take about 216 grams a day of this food, working from maintenance of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). A growing large breed puppy needs a good deal more than an adult of the same weight, so feed above that rate through growth and check the ribs weekly.