VetSpec Working Dog Food Puppy & Junior review

This one finishes in our Good band, a little ahead of the middle of the puppy dry field, which lands in the same place. Outstanding is the transparency reading, and protein and processing, nutritional balance and value all come in Good. What lifts it above the middle is a meat share declared piece by piece and a starch base that names every part of itself. Joint support is there at levels you can read straight off the ingredients, with no need to infer them from a claim on the front.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken meat meal (28.0%), Brown rice (16.1%), White rice (16.1%), Fresh chicken (9.0%),chicken fat (5.9%), peas (6.0%), sugar beet pulp, whole oats, whole linseeds, chicken digest as gravy (1.8%), fish oil, glucosamine HCl (0.25%), calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, culinary herbs blend (dried seaweed, chicory extract as source of fructo-oligosaccharides (0.08%), yeast extract as source of mannanoligosaccharides (0.08%), alfalfa, yucca extract, rosemary, fennel, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, aniseed), chondroitin sulphate (0.03%)

Chicken meat meal at 28.0% opens the list. A meal arrives dry, so its share carries into the finished bag much as printed. Fresh chicken at 9.0% and chicken fat at 5.9% follow, with chicken digest as gravy at 1.8%. No second animal appears on the recipe.

The starch is generous and it is spread about. Brown rice and white rice come in at 16.1% apiece, with whole oats, peas at 6.0% and sugar beet pulp behind them. The carbohydrate estimate converts to 41.3% of dry matter against the 39.0% typical of the category. For a food built to fuel long days that is a reasonable design choice, since rice is easily digested and releases its energy without fuss.

Joint support is the part that separates this from an ordinary growth kibble. Glucosamine HCl is declared at 0.25% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.03%, both on the ingredients list rather than tucked into a claim, with fish oil adding marine omega 3 alongside. The glucosamine is the heavier inclusion of the two, and for a pup being reared towards a working life it is a sensible thing to have started early.

The culinary herbs blend closing the list is more useful than it first looks. Chicory extract supplies fructo oligosaccharides at 0.08% and yeast extract mannan oligosaccharides at the same level, both prebiotics that help settle a young gut. Alongside them come dried seaweed, alfalfa and yucca extract, ahead of a run of kitchen herbs.

On the declared analysis, protein converts to 29.7% of dry matter, fat to 17.0% and fibre to 3.8%, a moderate and workable shape for a growing dog rather than a rich one. The additive panel is dosed openly, with L-carnitine at 250 mg/kg and biotin at 3.3 mg/kg among the entries and chelated forms of the trace minerals alongside the sulphates. The one thing missing is a calcium figure. Calcium carbonate is clearly in the recipe, but the amount reaching the bowl is never stated, and that figure is what a big breed owner needs.

£3.35 a kilo, sold in a single 15kg bag.

No fixed daily amount works for a puppy, because the quantity tracks their age and the adult frame they are growing towards. Start from VetSpec's chart and treat your pup's ribs and waistline as the real guide. Its own table runs from 40g a day for the youngest pups up to 375g at ten months.