K9 Optimum Puppy Maxi review

Our Good band is where K9 Optimum Puppy Maxi comes to rest, right alongside the middle of the puppy dry food field, which sits in that same band. Its four pillars sit high and even: protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all read Good, with transparency Outstanding. The result is built on the whole label, and no single standout number carries it.

What earns it that position is a declared, in range calcium figure on a food sold specifically for big pups. Two forms of chicken head the recipe. The supplement list reaches for DHA, lutein and prebiotics, and does not stop at vitamins. What keeps it from pushing higher is the starch load from rice and maize, and a long tail of ingredients that are named but not dosed.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Dried (19%), Chicken (18%), Rice, Maize, Chicken Gravy, Salmon (4%), Chicken Fat, Whole Oats, Prairie Meal, Salmon Meal, Brewers Yeast, Beet Pulp, Full Fat Linseed (1%), Salmon Oil (1%), Egg Powder, Marine Algae (Source Of Docosahexaenoic Acid (Dha)), Minerals, Marigold (Source Of Lutein), Rosemary, Pomegranate, Mannan Oligosaccharides, Glucosamine, Nucleotides, Turmeric, Blackcurrant, Yucca Schidigera, Nz Green Lipped Mussel, Methylsulphonylmethane

The meat is built from two forms of the same bird. Dried chicken at 19% has already lost its water, so most of its declared share carries through into the finished kibble. Freshly prepared chicken at 18% goes in wet and shrinks considerably during cooking. Chicken gravy and chicken fat follow further down, which keeps the poultry side of the recipe on one named species throughout.

Fish comes in from three directions: salmon at 4%, salmon meal, and salmon oil at 1%. Marine oils are the ones a growing brain and coat make the best use of. Marine algae is listed separately as a source of docosahexaenoic acid, the same nutrient arrived at from a plant source. Egg powder adds a small amount of highly digestible protein alongside.

Rice and maize sit second and fourth, with whole oats behind them. Between them they explain the carbohydrate estimate of 40.0% as fed and 43.5% of dry matter, above the 39.0% the puppy field runs at. Beet pulp brings a mild fibre. One entry in the middle, prairie meal, is not a term the label explains and names no species, so it is the one place where an otherwise well itemised composition goes quiet.

Calcium is the headline act in any large breed growth food, and this one declares it at 1.09% of dry matter, inside the range a big skeleton wants. That is precisely what you hope to find on a bag with Maxi on the front. Too much calcium during a fast growth phase is one of the few feeding mistakes with lasting consequences, and here the number is printed for you to see.

On the pack the analysis is protein 28.0%, fat 14.0%, fibre 3.0%, ash 7.0% and moisture 8.0%. Take the water out and that is 30.4% protein and 15.2% fat. Energy is our estimate at 357 kcal per 100g, a little under the 376 typical of a puppy dry food, which suits the deliberately unhurried growth a big breed pup wants.

A long tail closes the list, and most of it is good sense: mannan oligosaccharides as a prebiotic, nucleotides, turmeric, blackcurrant, pomegranate, rosemary and yucca schidigera, with green lipped mussel and methylsulphonylmethane alongside the glucosamine. None of those carries a printed dose, so they are best read as seasoning. The declared additives are properly dosed, with taurine at 250 mg/kg, vitamin E at 340 mg/kg, manganese at 47 mg/kg and iron at 22 mg/kg among them.

£3.17 a kilo, with 2kg and 12kg bags.

Large breed growth is a slow build, not a sprint. Feed to the chart for the adult weight your pup will reach, keep them lean while the frame fills out, and revisit the amount as each month passes.