Golden Eagle Large & Giant Breed Puppy review

This food sits in our Good band. The middle of the puppy kibble field sits there too. Transparency is the pillar that reads Excellent, helped by a long list that names most of what it uses and by a declared calcium figure, which is far from universal in this class.

A modest protein figure sitting alongside a large starch share pulls two pillars down together: protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average. That is a deliberate design for a big pup, not an accident, but it is still what holds the position where it is.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Meal (25%), Wholegrain Brown Rice, Wholegrain White Rice, Oatmeal, Refined Chicken Fat, Whole Linseed, Tomato Pomace, Beet Pulp, Egg, Salmon Meal, Pork Meal, Peas, Carrot Flake, Lucerne, Salmon Oil, Chicken Liver Gravy, Monosodium Phosphate, Salt (Natrox), Potassium Chloride, Seaweed, Yucca Joint Care Pack, Dried Apple, Cranberry, Selenium, Beta Carotene, L-Carnitine, Minerals, Vitamins, Microhealth, Biohealth and Lactohealth.

Chicken meal at 25% is the anchor. Meal is a concentrate: rendered and dried before it enters the mix, so its protein carries through to the biscuit largely as declared. Egg, salmon meal and pork meal follow further down and broaden the amino acid base between them. Pork is comparatively unusual in dog food, which occasionally makes it a useful meat for a dog that has met everything else. Here it sits alongside chicken and fish, not in place of them.

Wholegrain brown rice and wholegrain white rice supply the starch, with oatmeal alongside. Wholegrains keep more of their fibre and micronutrients than refined versions do, and oats in particular are gentle once cooked. It is a lot of grain all the same, and the estimated carbohydrate of 47.9% of dry matter is the arithmetic of that.

Fibre is worked at from more than one direction: beet pulp for a mix of soluble and insoluble supply, tomato pomace behind it, and lucerne, which is alfalfa under another name. Crude fibre lands at 3.5% as declared, higher than most puppy kibbles carry, which tends to suit a big pup's digestion.

Calcium is the headline number in any large breed puppy food, because too much of it through the fastest growing months is the single most avoidable mistake in rearing a big dog. This label declares it, and it converts to 1.52% of dry matter, sitting inside the window controlled growth wants. Set that beside a restrained energy figure of an estimated 345 kcal per 100g and the intent is clear: fill the pup up without hurrying them along faster than their joints can follow.

At the tail of the list the label goes quiet. Yucca joint care pack, Microhealth, Biohealth and Lactohealth are the maker's own names for blends, and none of them arrives with a composition or a dose. L-carnitine and beta carotene are named plainly, which helps, but there is no separate additive panel published, so the vitamin and trace element figures are not there to check. Salt appears as an added ingredient too, with potassium chloride and monosodium phosphate alongside it, all three there to balance the mineral profile and the taste.

Moisture is declared at 8.0%, so the dry matter figures here rest on a printed number and not an assumption. Declared protein of 23.0% is modest for a growth food, and it is worth holding that alongside the calcium and the energy. This is a bag built for measured growth rather than maximum growth, and a big pup is usually better off for it.

Sold in 6kg and 12kg bags.

On our standard energy estimate, a 10kg pup of four to twelve months works out at roughly 205 to 251 grams a day. Big pups are the ones where that number matters most and where it moves fastest. Lean on the chart on the bag rather than the bowl, and re-weigh the portion as your pup's expected adult size comes into focus.