Eukanuba Special Care Sensitive Digestion Puppy All Breed Rich in Chicken review

This lands in our Good band, which is also where the typical puppy dry food sits, so it matches the going rate for growth kibble rather than pulling clear of it. Protein and processing and transparency each read Good, with nutritional balance a step up in Excellent. The digestion package and the printed calcium are what hold it there, and what stops it going further is a label that names its meats precisely and then leaves the fat as poultry.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (31% including chicken 22%), white rice, maize, fresh chicken (10%), poultry fat, dried beet pulp (3.9%), chicken gravy, dried whole egg, fish meal, minerals, linseed, fish oil, fructooligosaccharides (1%), brewer's dried yeast, mannanoligosaccharides (0.13%), microencapsulated Sodium Butyrate (0.1%).

The meat is declared in a way that lets you check it. The dried chicken and turkey figure is 31%, chicken is named as 22% of the recipe within that, and freshly prepared chicken follows at 10%. The water is long gone from dried meat, so that leading 31% reaches the bowl at close to its printed size. The fresh chicken shrinks in the oven.

Of the common cereals, white rice sits easiest with an unsettled gut. Putting it ahead of the maize is the right way round on a food with this brief. Beet pulp at 3.9% is a substantial inclusion and does most of the stool firming work here.

The gut package is the part that earns the name. Fructooligosaccharides at 1% is generous by the standards of most labels, and mannanoligosaccharides sit at 0.13%. The sodium butyrate at 0.1% is microencapsulated, so it survives the journey to the part of the gut where it is meant to act.

Fish meal brings concentrated marine protein and minerals, while linseed and fish oil cover omega 3s from a plant source and a marine one. That is good news for a growing coat. Fish is on the list here, so note it if you are avoiding it.

Poultry fat is the one loose thread. Chicken, turkey, duck or goose are all possible, and a label this careful with its meats could name it too. A pup with a simple preference is unaffected by it. On a genuine exclusion trial, it is a single question to put to the maker.

Calcium converts to 1.3% of dry matter. The maker lists the food for puppies of every size, giants included. A declared, in range calcium figure is precisely what should sit behind a claim of that breadth, because the largest pups are the ones the number matters most to.

Protein of 31.0% and fat of 20.8% convert to 33.7% and 22.6% of dry matter on the standard assumption of 8% moisture, since no moisture line is printed. Carbohydrate is an estimated 34.0% of dry matter, below the 39.0% typical, and the energy figure of 395 kcal per 100g is ours too. L-carnitine at 50mg is dosed on the additive panel alongside the vitamins and chelated trace elements.

Sold in a 12kg bag, with a smaller bag listed alongside it.

There is no fixed daily scoop for a puppy. Let the growth chart on the pack and your pup's waistline set the amount from week to week.