JosiDog Junior Sensitive review

Our Average band is where JosiDog Junior Sensitive comes out, with the middle of the puppy dry food field a band above it in our Good band. The pillars are not level with one another: transparency reads Good, while nutritional balance reads Average and protein and processing Poor.

The reading behind it is straightforward. Cereal takes the first position, the meat is named by group, calcium goes undeclared on a food offered to giant breed pups, and moisture is missing from the analysis. The other side is that the recipe genuinely does what its name promises. There is one animal source, three different fibres working together, an energy figure that comes from the maker, and a fully dosed additive panel.

Ingredients, as declared: whole grain maize; dried poultry protein; poultry fat; rice; beet fibre; carob meal; hydrolysed poultry protein; minerals; ground chicory root (natural source of inulin)

The sensitive part of the name is delivered through fibre rather than through a hydrolysed protein or a novel meat. The three fibres each work differently. Beet fibre is the gentle everyday sort that most dogs handle without a murmur. Carob has a long history of firming things up. Chicory root supplies inulin, food for the good bacteria lower down the gut.

Only one animal source appears in the entire recipe. The three meat derived entries are dried poultry protein, poultry fat and hydrolysed poultry protein. No other ingredient here comes from an animal. That is genuinely uncommon, and it is the recipe's strongest selling point for a dog that reacts to variety. The word poultry is the limit. It stands for chicken, turkey, duck and goose all at once, so a dog who reacts to one particular bird is not helped by it.

Maize opens the list, rice sits further down, and the starch comes from the pair of them. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 44.7% of dry matter, well above the 39.0% a puppy dry food usually runs at. This is a cereal led food that happens to be a rich one.

The declared analysis gives protein 25.0%, fat 17.0%, fibre 2.3% and ash 6.5%, with moisture absent. Taking the dry matter column from the level a kibble is normally assumed to hold gives 27.2% protein and 18.5% fat. Energy is declared at 392 kcal per 100g, above the 376 typical of a puppy dry food. A smaller measure goes further, and that often suits a stomach that prefers modest meals.

Calcium is not declared. No number matters more in a growth food, and its absence bites hardest for a pup destined to finish large, since the margin for error in a big skeleton is narrow. JosiDog would need to supply the figure directly for a big breed rearing plan to lean on this bag.

Nothing else on this label is set out in as much detail as the additive block. Vitamin E at 220 mg/kg, niacinamide at 90 mg/kg and pantothenic acid at 50 mg/kg are printed with the rest of the B group. Iron at 200 mg/kg sits beside glycine chelated zinc at 180 mg/kg and manganese at 16 mg/kg. The glycine chelate form of zinc is worth a nod. A gut absorbs it better than the oxides a plain label usually settles for.

£2.53 a kilo, sold in 900g and 15kg bags, with a 5 x 900g multipack and a three bag pack also listed.

How much a growing dog eats has a different answer every few weeks. Let the maker's chart set the opening figure, then adjust in small steps as your pup's shape and appetite change.