Dr Clauders Mini review

Dr Clauders Mini falls in our Good band, level with the typical puppy dry food. The pillars explain that without much ambiguity: protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Average, while value reads Good.

The nutrition reading follows from protein at 27.2% of dry matter with carbohydrate estimated at 48.4%, a balance tilted towards starch in a food whose whole job is building a young body. The ingredient reading follows from the naming, because poultry meat, poultry meat meal, liver meal, fish meal and protein hydrolysate all describe a category rather than an animal. None of that stops a pup thriving on it, and the declared calcium and the breadth of the fresh produce behind the meat are genuine points in its favour.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meat (22%), millet, potato flour, poultry meat meal (10%), poultry fat, liver meal, protein hydrolysate, egg powder, fish meal, tomato (dried), yeast, chicory powder (1%), celery (dried), fish oil, peas (dried), carrots (dried), sodium chloride, apple (dried), cranberry (dehydrated), blueberries (dried), seaweed (dried), mussel powder, marigold (dried), yucca shidigera powder.

Poultry meat at 22% leads, backed by poultry meat meal at 10%. Pairing a fresh form with a meal form is sensible enough: the fresh brings palatability, the meal brings concentrated protein that survives the cooking. What neither brings is a species. Chicken, turkey, duck and goose all count as poultry. A maker using the general term keeps the freedom to change the bird between batches.

The same applies to liver meal, fish meal and protein hydrolysate. Liver carries more nutrients per gram than almost anything else, and fish meal is a strong source of amino acids and marine fats. Both do real work in this recipe. They simply do it anonymously. For a pup with no known sensitivities that is a small thing. For a pup with a meat intolerance it is the whole story.

Millet is a good grain for a young dog. It is easy to digest and free of gluten, and it carries B vitamins along with iron and potassium. Potato flour sits alongside it. Between them they take the carbohydrate estimate to 48.4% of dry matter on an assumed 8% moisture, a heavier load than the 39.0% puppy average. That is the flip side of a protein figure of 27.2% of dry matter.

The list gets generous towards its back half. Dried tomato, celery, peas and carrots, then apple, cranberry and blueberries, then seaweed, mussel powder and marigold, with 1% chicory powder acting as a prebiotic through its inulin and fish oil bringing marine omega 3. All of these sit at small inclusions, so read them as a well chosen finish rather than as the substance of the food.

Calcium is declared, and on that same 8% assumption it converts to 1.2% of dry matter. A growing skeleton needs it in that range. On a puppy label that figure is worth more than any of the botanicals behind it. Energy is our estimate at 362 kcal per 100g, because no figure is declared. With no additive panel published there is no way to check what sits behind the vitamin and mineral side of the analysis.

£5.44 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

A puppy's daily amount climbs while they are growing hardest and then settles as growth slows, so read the guide against your pup's weight today and check their outline as you go. Working from our own energy estimate, a 10kg pup between 4 and 12 months old would get through roughly 196 to 239 grams a day.