Virbac Veterinary HPM Baby Large & Medium review

Baby Large & Medium comes out in our Good band, ahead of the middle of the puppy dry field but short of the bands above it. That gap is not about the analysis. Protein at 38.5% of dry matter with carbohydrate at 25.8% is among the stronger shapes on any puppy shelf, and the declared calcium is exactly what a large breed owner wants to see.

It is about naming. The proteins name a category and never a species, the fats do the same, and the fibre leans on lignocellulose. Protein and processing settles at Good and climbs no higher, value sits alongside it, and nutritional balance reads Outstanding with transparency Excellent. If a meat heavy growth bowl is what you are after and you are relaxed about the poultry going unnamed, the substance in this bag is genuine.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated pork and poultry proteins; Rice; Poultry Fats; Peas; Lignocellulose; Hydrolysed pork and poultry proteins; Minerals; Dried (sugar) beet pulp; Fish oil; Linseed; Fructo-oligosaccharides; Psyllium fibre (Plantago (L.) spp.); Inactivated brewer's yeast; Inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus.

Everything starts with dehydrated pork and poultry proteins, a single entry covering two very different things. Pork is still an uncommon meat in dog food, and that makes it interesting for a pup who has reacted to the usual suspects. The dehydrated protein is weighed with the water already gone, and what is listed is close to what reaches the kibble. The poultry half is a category, not a species, and covers any domestic bird the batch happens to use.

This recipe makes its case in the analysis. Protein converts to 38.5% of dry matter and fat to 23.1%, with the carbohydrate estimate down at 25.8% against the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. Rice and peas are the only real starch sources, and getting a kibble that low on carbohydrate takes deliberate work, since starch is what holds a kibble together in the first place.

Calcium is declared and converts to 1.43% of dry matter, which is the figure a medium or large breed owner should be reading first. Growth in a big frame is the one situation where calcium can be got wrong in both directions, so a printed number inside the range takes a real worry off the table. Ash converting to 8.2% of dry matter sits in keeping with it.

Fibre comes from three directions and they are not equal. Psyllium is a genuinely useful soluble fibre, dried beet pulp is a mild and well tolerated one, but lignocellulose is a purified powder that bulks the recipe without bringing much else along with it. Fructo oligosaccharides sit alongside an inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus and inactivated brewer's yeast, a thorough digestive set for a growth food.

The added panel is fully dosed, with taurine at 1500 mg/kg, choline at 3000 mg/kg and vitamin E at 590 mg/kg among the entries, plus iron at 260 mg/kg and zinc at 160 mg/kg. Fish oil and linseed supply the omega 3 side between them, marine and plant, which is the pairing you want behind a growing coat and brain.

£6.17 a kilo, sold in 3kg, 7kg and 12kg bags.

A pup's daily ration keeps moving. It rises with age and with the adult frame ahead of them. Set the amount from Virbac's chart and keep adjusting as your dog's shape changes underneath you.