Eukanuba Puppy Small/Medium Breed Rich in Lamb & Rice review

Our Good band is where this one lands, sharing it with the typical puppy dry food. Protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all read Good, an even set of readings right across the four. Most of the lifting comes from the declared calcium and the dried meat that opens the list. The absent moisture line is what stops it climbing further.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), lamb (14%), rice (14%), maize, sorghum, pork fat, dried whole egg, dried beet pulp (2.6%), chicken gravy, fish oil (a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids), minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.35%), fructooligosaccharides (0.25%, a natural prebiotic), brewer's dried yeast (a natural source of B-vitamins and selenium), mannanoligosaccharides (0.13%, a natural prebiotic).

Dried chicken and turkey open the ingredients. The water is already out of dried meat. Weight for weight it delivers more to the finished kibble than fresh meat does. The label also credits it in brackets as the natural source of the glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine in the recipe. That is a fair description of what dried poultry brings with it, not a supplement claim.

Lamb at 14% is the flavour the pack leads on, and it is a genuinely useful meat for a young dog, easy to digest and rarely refused. Read the order carefully though, because the poultry comes first: this is a poultry recipe with lamb in a strong supporting role.

Rice at 14% is the friendliest of the starches here. Maize and sorghum follow it, plainer cereals that do the same binding job with less to offer nutritionally, though sorghum at least brings no gluten with it. Dried beet pulp at 2.6% adds the gentle fibre that keeps a puppy's motions predictable through the messy months.

Pork fat names its animal, which is more than a great many labels manage, and dried whole egg adds protein that pups digest easily. Fish oil closes the fat side with marine omega 3s for coat and brain. Fish therefore belongs in the allergen picture too.

Run through the conversion, the calcium sits at 1.41% of dry matter. Nothing else on a growth label works as hard as that figure, since bone laid down at the wrong pace is difficult to undo later. Printed here, it sits where small and medium breed growth wants it.

On the panel, protein is 28.0%, fat 17.0%, fibre 1.5% and ash 6.2%. Assuming the standard 8% kibble moisture, those convert to 30.4%, 18.5%, 1.6% and 6.7% of dry matter. Carbohydrate works out at an estimated 42.8% of dry matter, a little above the 39.0% typical for a puppy dry food. The energy figure of 380 kcal per 100g is ours, not the maker's.

Bags of 3kg and 12kg, at £4.17 a kilo.

A growing pup has no settled portion size. Let the pack's chart take charge of the scoop, and reset it every few weeks as your pup changes.