Josera YoungStar review

Our scoring puts Josera YoungStar in the Good band, level with the typical adult dry food and a rung above the Average band beneath it. Two things earn that gap. The meat is declared dried and at a real share, so nothing evaporates in the oven between the label and the bowl. Transparency comes out Outstanding because both of the big ingredients are printed with their percentages. Holding it back are the family naming of the poultry and a carbohydrate figure that runs above the category norm.

Ingredients, as declared: potato (dried) 44.0 %; poultry protein (dried) 28.0 %; poultry fat; plant fibre; carob meal; poultry protein (hydrolised); potato protein; yeast; vegetable protein (hydrolised); minerals; chicory root (ground, natural source of inulin); New Zealand greenlipped mussel meat (Perna canaliculus), dried.

Dried potato at 44% is the single biggest entry, and dried is the operative word. This is potato with its water gone, so its position on the list is honest weight and not a number puffed up by moisture. It brings a starch that most dogs digest comfortably and it keeps the recipe clear of cereal altogether.

Dried poultry protein at 28% is the meat, and again it arrives dry. A fresh meat entry weighs a lot on the label and very little once baked, which is how a big headline percentage ends up small in the bowl. Nothing like that happens here. Protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter and fat to a deliberately modest 14.1%, with energy at 372 kcal per 100 grams.

The restraint here is deliberate, and it is what the recipe is for. A large or giant breed puppy grown too quickly puts strain on joints that are still soft, and the two levers that matter are calories and calcium. Calcium works out at 1.52% of dry matter, a level suited to big-breed growth, and the fat is held low enough that a greedy youngster is less likely to run ahead of their own skeleton.

Behind the two headline entries the list stays short. Plant fibre and carob meal add bulk and a little firmness to the stool, potato protein and hydrolysed vegetable protein top up the amino acid side, and chicory root supplies inulin for the gut bacteria. Dried New Zealand green-lipped mussel comes last, a shellfish long fed for joint comfort and a thoughtful choice on a food written for growing frames.

Two label habits are worth reading properly. The poultry carries a family name and no bird, so chicken, turkey, duck or goose are all possible. Neither taurine nor L-carnitine is declared on this recipe. Neither point is a problem for a healthy young dog. Both simply matter if you had picked this bag up looking for those particular extras.

£3.20 a kilo, sold in a 15kg sack.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition needs about 226 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at roughly £0.72 a day. A growing puppy of the same weight will want considerably more than that, so lean on the label's own chart while your dog is still filling out.