JosiDog Junior review

This one comes in at our Average band, a rung under the Good band that the middle of the puppy dry food field holds. Transparency reads Good, while nutritional balance comes in Average and protein and processing Poor; the whole label simply sits at the plain end of the market.

The pattern behind that is easy enough to follow. Cereal takes the lead position and the meat is described by group, not by species. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 49.5% of dry matter, and calcium goes undeclared even though the bag is meant for toy and giant pups alike. Against that, the analysis is complete apart from moisture, the energy figure comes from the maker and not from our arithmetic, and the additive block is dosed line by line.

Ingredients, as declared: whole grain maize; dried poultry protein; rice; poultry fat; beet fibre; hydrolysed poultry protein; minerals

Whole grain maize opening the list is the fact that shapes everything else here. Maize is a perfectly digestible cereal for most dogs once it has been cooked, and it brings starch and energy. A growth food led by grain is asking the meat behind it to do a lot with less. Rice in third place adds to the same side of the ledger.

Dried poultry protein sits second. Dried is the useful word here. The water has gone already, so what the label declares is near enough what the kibble contains. Poultry as a term, though, groups chicken, turkey, duck and goose together, so the label never tells you which bird your pup is eating. That ambiguity is exactly what makes a food reaction hard to trace.

Beet fibre gives the recipe its fibre, hydrolysed poultry protein appears near the end as a broken down protein working mostly on palatability, and minerals close a list that stops at seven entries. There are no botanicals, no prebiotic and no joint ingredients here, which keeps things honest: what you see on the composition is what is in the bag.

The analysis declares protein 25.0%, fat 13.0%, fibre 2.3% and ash 6.2%, with moisture left off. Working the dry matter column from the standard level a kibble holds gives 27.2% protein, 14.1% fat and an estimated 49.5% carbohydrate. That last figure sits well clear of the 39.0% the puppy field typically runs at. Energy is declared at 373 kcal per 100g, near enough the middle of the field, so portions will feel familiar.

There is no calcium declaration, and for a growth food that is the most serious absence of the lot. A pup who will finish large or giant needs its bone minerals held within a fairly narrow band. This label gives an owner nothing to check that against, so the number would have to come from JosiDog directly.

The additive panel is the most detailed section of the label and reads properly. Vitamin A, D3 and E carry doses alongside the full B group, with biotin at 650 mcg/kg and folic acid at 4 mg/kg printed too. Iron at 200 mg/kg sits with glycine chelated zinc at 160 mg/kg and manganese at 20 mg/kg. The chelated mineral forms are the more absorbable ones, a quiet point in the label's favour.

£2.53 a kilo, sold in a 15kg sack.

A pup's daily amount will not hold still. What they need climbs steeply and then falls away again as the growing finishes. Start from the maker's guide, weigh the bowl, and reset it as your pup fills out.