Skinner's Field & Trial Junior review

This bag finishes in our Average band, a step behind where the puppy dry field averages out, and for a plainly built cereal based kibble that is an honest showing rather than a warning.

Nutritional balance reads Good, transparency Excellent and protein and processing Average, and construction is what earns that position, with no single flourish behind it. A named meat meal opens the list, the supplement tail carries real quantities, and the declared analysis matches what the bag claims on its front. The two things holding it back are both about what the label leaves unsaid, the unnamed remainder of the poultry and the missing calcium line.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry meat meal (min. 95% chicken) 32.5%, Maize, Wheat, Brown rice, Poultry fat, Naked oats, Beet pulp, Whole linseed, Vitamins & minerals, Marine algae meal, MOS 2500mg/kg, FOS 1000mg/kg, Herb blend 750mg/kg, Glucosamine 250mg/kg, Chondroitin sulphate 150mg/kg, Seaweed 150mg/kg, Yucca 100mg/kg

The meat content is poultry meat meal at 32.5%. Few labels name the bird behind that, and this one does: at least 95% chicken. Meat meal is the dry, rendered powder that kibble making has leaned on for decades. Its water is gone before it reaches the mixer. What the label prints is therefore what the finished kibble gets, with no shrinking in the oven. Protein is declared at 27.0%, converting to 29.3% of dry matter.

The base is a traditional four cereal one. Maize and wheat come before brown rice and naked oats in the order. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 43.5% of dry matter, where the puppy dry field averages 39.0%. The grain here is pulling real weight. Wheat is the entry worth flagging. Most dogs eat it perfectly happily. It is also the cereal that comes up most often in the history of a dog with a sensitivity, so a junior who has shown signs of one deserves the note.

Poultry fat is the added energy carrier, and unlike the meat meal above it, it names no bird at all. For most dogs that is a small ambiguity and no problem at all, though a formal exclusion diet needs it read carefully. Whole linseed brings plant omega 3 and a little fibre alongside, and beet pulp supplies the gentle, well tolerated fibre most kibbles lean on, with crude fibre declared at 2.0%.

This label's reputation rests on the supplement tail. MOS at 2500mg/kg and FOS at 1000mg/kg make a proper prebiotic pairing, both working on the population of friendly bacteria in the large intestine. Glucosamine at 250mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 150mg/kg follow for the joints, then seaweed at 150mg/kg and yucca at 100mg/kg. Only the herb blend at 750mg/kg keeps its contents to itself.

The added panel is fully quantified as well: vitamin A at 13000iu, vitamin D3 at 2000iu, vitamin E at 350mg and taurine at 100mg per kilogram. The trace elements are given twice over in most cases, once as an inorganic salt and once as a protein hydrolysate chelate, the more absorbable form. Iron comes in at 26.7mg and 13.3mg, manganese at 16.7mg and 8.3mg, zinc at 100mg and 30mg, copper at 3.3mg and 1.7mg, iodine at 1.5mg and organic selenium at 0.1mg. Clinoptilolite clay appears at 3000mg as a technological additive.

The one line a growth food most wants and this label does not give is calcium. Nothing is printed, so a claim about rearing a large or giant breed junior cannot rest on this pack, and an owner in that position is best asking Skinner's directly. Everything else in the analysis is declared rather than estimated, including the 384 kcal per 100g, the 16.0% fat that converts to 17.4% of dry matter, and the 7.0% ash.

£2.44 a kilo, sold in 2.5kg and 15kg bags.

A junior's ration keeps shifting as the frame fills out, so the chart on the bag beats a fixed scoop. It runs from 150g a day for the lightest dogs up to 500g a day through the middle of its range. Let the growth chart and your dog's condition set the amount.