Lakes Collection Lakes Pioneer Sensitive Puppy: Chicken with Rice review

Lakes Pioneer Sensitive Puppy lands in our Good band, the same band the middle of the puppy kibble field occupies, so the two finish in step. Transparency is its strongest pillar, helped by a label that prints its supplement doses and declares calcium instead of leaving owners to guess at it. Protein and processing reads Average and nutritional balance reads Good. That is the honest shape of a recipe with a decent share of chicken up front and cereal carrying the rest of the bag.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 38% (Including Dried Chicken 31%, Chicken Fat 5% & Chicken Gravy 2%) Rice (18%), Maize, Oats, Beet Pulp (5%), Dried Fish, Freshly Prepared Free Range Egg, Brewer's Yeast, Linseed, Minerals, Omega 3 Supplement, Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 530 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 530 mg/kg), Yucca Extract (240 mg/kg), Glucosamine (90 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (90 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (60 mg/kg). No Added Artificial Colours & Preservatives, naturally preserved using rosemary extract. Formulated without wheat gluten.

The 38% chicken headline breaks down in a way that flatters the food. Dried chicken makes up 31% of that total. Its water is long gone, so it carries far more finished protein than the same percentage of fresh would. Chicken fat at 5% and chicken gravy at 2% complete the total, both named to the same bird, and protein is declared at 28.0%, or 30.4% once the declared 8.0% moisture comes out.

Rice at 18% leads the carbohydrate side with maize and oats behind it. A puppy dry food usually sits at 39.0% carbohydrate. Between them these cereals take it to an estimated 44.0% of dry matter. A good deal of the energy here comes from cereal. Cooked oats are gentle on most young digestions and bring useful fibre with them. Wheat gluten is absent, and the label says so.

Beet pulp at 5% is the fibre most sensitive stomach recipes reach for, moderate and well tolerated. Behind it sit MOS and FOS at 530 mg/kg each, prebiotics aimed at the good bacteria lower down the gut. Yucca extract at 240 mg/kg goes in with an eye on stool odour. There is brewer's yeast too, a natural source of B vitamins.

Calcium is declared at 1.3% of dry matter, and a growing skeleton wants it in exactly that window. That matters more here than on most labels. This food is listed by the maker for medium, large and giant breed puppies, and getting calcium right is the single most important thing a big breed growth food does. This one prints the number rather than leaving it to trust.

Dried fish and freshly prepared free range egg both earn a place on the list, and both bring good protein with them, egg especially. More than one animal is in play, then. On a strict exclusion diet, a pup needs the whole list read and not the front of the bag alone. The omega 3 supplement names no species either.

The three joint ingredients come with quantities attached: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 90 mg/kg apiece and chondroitin sulphate at 60 mg/kg. The amounts are modest, not therapeutic, and read as a sensible early nod on a food for a fast growing youngster. The label also states no added artificial colours or preservatives. Rosemary extract holds the fats fresh, and energy is declared at 369 kcal per 100g.

Sold in 1.5kg and 12kg bags.

What a puppy eats today is not what they will eat next month. The amount climbs with age, then settles as the growth curve flattens. Weigh against the bag's own chart, and give your pup's shape the final say.