Optimum Pet Health Puppy Large Breeds review

The reading here comes out in our Excellent band. Most of the puppy dry field sits a step lower, in our Good band. Transparency reads Outstanding. Value follows at Excellent, and protein and processing sits at Good with nutritional balance, so there is no weak leg holding it back. On a large-breed growth food the calcium line is the headline act, and having it printed and in range is what makes the rest of this label worth reading closely.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (Of Which Fresh Chicken Meat 25% And Dried Chicken 22%) (47%), Dried Potato Flakes, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Green Peas, Chicken Fat (6%), Chicken Gravy (3%), Dried Beet Pulp, Fish Oil (1%), Dried Antarctic Krill (1%), Minerals, Linseed, Carob Flour, Cellulose, Dried Brewers Yeast, Dried Chicory (A Natural Source Of Fos And Inulin) (1%), Yeast Cell Wall (A Natural Source Of Mos And Beta Glucans) (1%), Gos (Galacto Oligosaccharides) (1%), Dried Curcuma Longa, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate, Msm (Methylsulfonylmethane), Yucca Schidigera, Dried Melissa Officinalis, Dried Thymus Vulgaris, Dried Fenugreek, Olive Powder, Dried Rosehip, Tyndallized Lactobacillus Helveticus

Start with the number that matters. Calcium converts to 1.1% of dry matter, and for a pup who will carry a heavy adult frame that one figure shapes how the skeleton develops more than any other line on the panel. Overdoing calcium during growth is the classic way to get a big dog's joints wrong. A declared figure sitting inside the accepted window is exactly the line a large-breed owner looks for.

The meat is chicken and nothing but chicken: 47% in total, printed as 25% fresh chicken meat and 22% dried chicken. The dried portion is the harder-working half, having already lost its water and therefore keeping more of its share in the finished kibble. Chicken fat at 6% and chicken gravy at 3% carry the bird's name as well, where a generic term would have done.

Fish is the exception to that single-animal picture. Fish oil at 1% is in the recipe, with dried Antarctic krill at 1% beside it, both for the long chain omega 3 a growing brain and coat rely on. For a pup kept away from fish altogether, though, they rule this out.

There is no cereal in the bag. Dried potato flakes lead the starch with dried sweet potato and green peas behind them, and carbohydrate converts to 36.2% of dry matter, under the 39.0% a typical puppy dry food carries. Moisture is declared at 9.0%, so the dry matter conversions rest on a printed number and not an assumption.

The fibre pairing is beet pulp and cellulose. Of the two, beet pulp does the more useful work, a moderate fibre most dogs tolerate happily, while cellulose bulks the stool without offering a great deal beyond that. Crude fibre of 4.0% converts to 4.4% of dry matter, generous for a growth kibble and no bad thing for a big pup's housetraining.

The gut and joint additions get named one by one. Dried chicory at 1% supplies inulin, yeast cell wall at 1% covers MOS and beta glucans, GOS takes its own 1%, and then come glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulphate and MSM. No printed dose is attached to any of the joint entries, so read them as sensible early support and not a measured course.

Protein of 30.0% converts to 33.0% of dry matter and fat of 16.0% to 17.6%, a moderate and unhurried pair of figures. That restraint suits the brief, because a large-breed pup does best grown slowly and not pushed. Energy is estimated at 356 kcal per 100g. Rosehip, olive powder, fenugreek, thyme, melissa, yucca and turmeric finish the list at garnish level.

The added panel is dosed. Vitamin E at 450 mg and vitamin C at 100 mg are quoted alongside declared vitamin A, vitamin D3, taurine and selenium. The trace minerals appear in sulphate form and in amino acid chelate form, the chelates generally being the more available of the two to a growing dog.

£3.20 a kilo, in 4kg and 15kg bags.

A big pup's daily amount rises fast in the early months and then eases as the growth slows. Keep to the chart on the bag, matched to their age and the weight they will reach as an adult, and check by feel along the ribs, not by habit.