CSJ Little Champ review

Little Champ lands in our Good band, level with the typical puppy dry food and a shade above the middle of that field. Value reads Outstanding, protein and processing Good and nutritional balance Average, so nothing here is dragging the rest down. It is simply a recipe built to a familiar cereal and meat meal pattern rather than a meat forward one. The gaps in what the label declares, chiefly the absent calcium line and the unstated meat percentages, are the parts with the most room to move.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken meal, Wheat, Maize, Wheat flour, Beef meal, Chicken fat, Chicken gravy, Beet pulp, Alfalfa, Linseed, Minerals, Salmon oil, Yucca schidigera.

Chicken meal opens the list, and the meal form is worth decoding. Before the ingredient reaches the mixer its water has gone. A given percentage of meal therefore carries far more protein into the finished kibble than the same percentage of fresh meat would. Beef meal follows a few places down. Neither is given a percentage, so the label tells you the order of the recipe without telling you the scale of it.

Wheat, maize and wheat flour take the next places between them, and that is the shape of this food: cereals doing the bulk and the binding while the meat meals supply the protein. Wheat is inexpensive and forms a kibble beautifully, though it is also the grain dogs most often turn out to be sensitive to, so it is worth knowing which camp your pup falls into.

Behind the cereals the list turns useful. Beet pulp brings the fibre and it is a gentle, well tolerated sort, while alfalfa adds plant protein and roughage. Linseed and salmon oil between them cover omega 3 from a plant and a marine source. Yucca schidigera closes the list, and its usual job is to keep the smell down at the other end.

Protein 26.0% and fat 12.0% are the declared analysis, converting to 28.9% and 13.3% of dry matter on the declared 10.0% moisture. Carbohydrate is not declared, and our estimate puts it at 41.0% as fed, or 45.6% of dry matter, above the 39.0% the typical puppy dry food runs at. Energy is declared rather than estimated, at 381 kcal per 100g.

The additive panel is the most detailed part of this label. Vitamin A comes at 18,500iu/kg, vitamin D3 at 1,850iu/kg and vitamin E at 300mg/kg, and then iron, copper, zinc, manganese, iodine and selenium each carry a dose. Calcium is what it does not carry, and on a food meant to build a young skeleton a big breed owner looks for that line first.

£1.80 a kilo, sold in a 15kg sack.

A puppy's portion keeps moving, so take the amount from the bag's chart for your pup's weight and adjust it as they fill out. On the label's own guide the smallest pups start at 24g a day and the range tops out at 350g a day.