Dr John Puppy review

Dr John Puppy comes out in our Good band, level with the typical puppy dry food, and all four of our readings come back Good. The shape of the recipe explains it neatly: a single meat meal at the front, with three cereals and a plant protein behind it. Protein at 29.7% of dry matter is workmanlike for a growing dog, not generous. The declared inclusions at the tail are this label's best habit, and the missing calcium line is its largest omission.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meal (30% chicken), wheat, barley, maize, chicken fat, maize gluten, beet pulp (1.9%), salmon oil (1.25%), FOS (0.625%), minerals, linseed, yucca extract.

Poultry meal leads, and the bracketed note that 30% of it is chicken is more helpful than most labels manage, since it names at least part of the bird. The remainder of the poultry stays unnamed, and that is where the ambiguity sits. Poultry can mean chicken, turkey, duck or goose and the general term lets a recipe move between them from batch to batch.

Wheat, barley and maize follow in a row, three cereals doing the binding and the bulk. Barley is a decent grain for a dog, easily digested once cooked and carrying useful fibre, while wheat is the one most often behind a sensitivity. Maize gluten sits just past the chicken fat and is a different sort of entry altogether. It comes out of maize processing and lifts the protein figure on the panel. Plant protein of that kind is harder for a dog to put to work than protein from meat.

This label is at its best at the tail of the list, where it puts numbers on things most recipes leave vague. Beet pulp at 1.9% is a mild, well tolerated fibre. Salmon oil at 1.25% brings marine omega 3 for coat and brain. FOS at 0.625% is a real prebiotic dose, enough to feed the bacterial population of the large intestine. Linseed and yucca extract close things out.

Protein 27.0%, fat 15.0%, fibre 2.5% and ash 7.0% are the declared figures, converting on the declared 9.0% moisture to 29.7% protein and 16.5% fat of dry matter. Carbohydrate is estimated at 43.4% of dry matter, above the 39.0% typical for a puppy dry food. Energy is our estimate at 360 kcal per 100g, a little under the 376 typical.

Calcium is the figure this label withholds, along with any published additive panel. This food is listed without a breed size restriction, so it will end up in front of large breed pups. Calcium is the one line most worth asking the maker to supply before the first bag is finished.

£2.35 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 10kg bags.

There is no single daily amount that fits a pup for long, so measure against the bag's chart for their weight today and move up a line as they grow into it.