Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential The Beginning Large Breed review

Name: Essential Foods Essential The Beginning Large Breed
Brand: Essential Foods

73/100Excellent

DryPuppy

Flavour

Two routes to rearing a big pup, both with calcium declared and in range, which is the figure that counts most here. The standard recipe reaches our Excellent band on chicken and duck. The all-fish Nautical Edition sits a step behind in Good.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Large and giant breed puppies, the only size either recipe is written for
Owners who read calcium first: 1.53% and 1.41% of dry matter
Pups reared on fish, with the Nautical Edition's meat all marine
Traceable meat. Free-range British chicken and duck on the standard bag
Measured growth, at 362 and 355 kcal per 100g

Worth watching

The season's fish, fresh and dried, is not named to species
Chicken and duck share one entry, so neither bird gets its own figure
Whole egg in both, so the Nautical Edition is not a pure fish diet

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

73/100Excellent

Protein and processingGood

Nutritional balanceGood

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueExcellent

The details

Dog fit

Listed for puppies of large and giant breeds. Feed from the expected adult weight column on the pack and trim as your pup develops.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Puppy

Breed size

Large, Giant

Main protein

Chicken

The score, in context

Essential The Beginning Large Breed 73.0
Nautical Edition 66.4

Two recipes across Excellent and Good. Typical dry food: Good.

The standard recipe earns its place on the panel as much as in the pot, and the Nautical Edition trails it mostly because it declares no ash.

What's in it

Fresh free-range British chicken and duck30%One entry for both birds.
Dried chicken and duck28%Water already gone, so it carries more than its share into the kibble.
Sweet potato, peas
Fresh salmon and trout7%
Whole egg7%Rules the food out for a pup avoiding egg.
Linseed, potato, lucerne sprout
Chicken fat, chicken gravy4% and 3%
MOS, FOSThe gut work, undosed.
Glucosamine, MSM, chondroitinThe joints, also undosed.
Cranberry, acai and other fruits and botanicalsSeasoning more than substance.

Vitamins A, D3 and E with taurine, trace elements as amino acid chelates and selenium as sodium selenite.

Named ingredients

Fresh free-range British chicken and free-run welfare assured British country duck (30%), dried chicken & duck (28%), sweet potato, peas, fresh salmon and trout (7%), whole egg (7%), linseed, chicken fat (4%), potato, chicken gravy (3%), lucerne sprout, vitamins, minerals, MOS (mannan oligosaccarides), FOS (fructooligosaccharides), glucosamine, MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), chondroitin, cranberry, acai, bilberry, mulberry, apple, tomato, orange, pear, carrot, spinach, cauliflower, seaweed, marigold, ginseng, decaffeinated green tea, ginger.

Against the range

Meat: Chicken and duck, 30% fresh and 28% dried; The Nautical Edition is all fish.
Calcium, dry matter: 1.53%; 1.41% on the Nautical; both in range.
Carbohydrate, dry matter: 41.6%; The Nautical prints no ash, so it cannot be worked out.
Other animals on the label: Chicken, duck, egg and fish; Egg and fish only on the Nautical.

The more fully declared of the two, and the stronger on our scoring.

Two large-breed growth recipes on the same frame. The standard bag leads on fresh and dried chicken and duck, with egg and fish behind; the Nautical Edition swaps every animal for fish apart from 2% whole eggs. Both declare calcium inside the growth range.

The functional tail is shared: two prebiotics, a joint set and a long run of fruits and botanicals, none of it dosed. Trace elements come as chelates on both, and both are preserved with rosemary extract.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

362 kcal/100g

Protein

28%

Fat

14%

Fibre

3.5%

Ash

Moisture

8.5%

Dry weight

Protein

30.6%

Fat

15.3%

Fibre

3.8%

Ash

8.7%

Carbs

41.6%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

75%

Carbs

16.9%

Oils

Other

4.1%

Pricing & size