Heights Farm Puppy Large Breed Extra Joint Care review

This recipe finishes in our Excellent band, a band above the Good mark that the middle of the puppy dry field occupies. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good, with transparency and value both at Excellent, which fits a food that does several things capably. The chicken share and the itemised extras pull upwards, while the undosed joint package and the mineral picture are what stop it climbing.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken meal, Pea Starch, Freshly prepared Chicken (min 44% total Chicken). Sweet Potato, Potato, Chicken Fat, Chicken Liver, Beet Pulp, Dried Egg, Full fat linseed, Yeast, Salmon oil (source of Omega 3 fatty acids) Pea Protein, Lucerne, Minerals, Marine Algae (source of DHA), Mannan oligosaccharides, Marine algae, Glucosamine, Green Lipped Mussel, Blackcurrant, Yucca schidigera, Blackcurrant, Rosemary, Pomegranate.

Chicken meal opens the list. Because a meal comes to the mixer with the water gone, its weight carries through to the finished kibble. The freshly prepared chicken listed third is weighed before cooking, and the label does the sensible thing by giving the combined figure of a minimum 44% total chicken. Protein is declared at 28.0%, or 31.1% of dry matter.

No cereal appears anywhere. Pea starch sits second, and sweet potato and potato follow it. Carbohydrate is estimated at 36.0% as fed, or 40.0% of dry matter, close to the 39.0% typical for a puppy dry food. Dropping the grain has not meaningfully lightened the starch load here. Beet pulp and lucerne bring the fibre, declared at 3.2%.

Glucosamine, green lipped mussel and mannan oligosaccharides all appear, and green lipped mussel is a genuinely useful source of joint nutrients rather than a token. None of them carries a dose, though, so the extra joint care in the name rests on their presence alone.

Chicken fat is named to species. Omega 3 arrives twice over, from full fat linseed and from salmon oil. Marine algae is listed as a source of DHA, the fatty acid a growing brain and eye need most. Dried egg adds an easily digested protein alongside them, and yeast brings B vitamins.

Ash is declared at 7.75%, and calcium converts to 1.94% of dry matter. For a puppy heading towards a modest adult size, that is a comfortable mineral supply. A food sold for large breed growth invites a closer look at exactly that number. It is the most useful thing to raise with your vet when you plan the first year of feeding.

The declared additive panel is short and dosed. Vitamins A, D and E all carry figures, with vitamin E at 400 mg and L-carnitine at 325 mg. L-carnitine helps the body turn fat into working energy. Botanicals close the recipe, with yucca, rosemary, blackcurrant and pomegranate at trace levels that season it rather than shape it.

£4.07 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 15kg bags.

A growing dog's portion keeps moving, so there is no fixed scoop. Work it out from the growth chart and from the adult weight your puppy is heading for. Come back to the figure every few weeks while they are still filling out.