Wellness Core Puppy Large Breed review

This bag finishes in our Excellent band, a step ahead of where the typical puppy dry food sits. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance Excellent and protein and processing Good, with no single reading left to do the carrying.

The chicken content is what earns the position. Declaring 61% across five entries, with the fresh and the dehydrated forms both named and weighed, tells an owner far more than a single headline percentage would. Working the other way are the things the pack does not say. Neither calcium nor moisture is declared, and on a food sold specifically for large breed growth the missing calcium line is much the more significant of the two.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 61% (Fresh Chicken 25%, Dehydrated Chicken 20%, Chicken Fat 6%, Dried Chicken Protein 5%, Chicken Gravy 5%), Peas 20%, Dried Potatoes, Beet Pulp 4%, Linseed 3%, Salmon Oil 2%, Carrots, Apples, Dried Chicory Root 0.5% (source of Fructo-oligo-saccharides and Inulin), Yeast Extract (source of mannan-oligosaccharides) 0.5%, Broccoli, Tomatoes, Spinach, Cranberries 0.01%, Blueberries, D-Glucosamine Hydrochloride 100 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 100 mg/kg, Yucca Schidigera, Mixed Herbs (Dried Rosemary, Dried Turmeric, Dried Citrus, Dried Eugenia).

Chicken is broken out five ways here, and that itemisation is genuinely useful. The bulk of it is fresh chicken at 25% with dehydrated chicken at 20%. Chicken fat at 6% carries the energy, dried chicken protein at 5% concentrates the amino acids and chicken gravy at 5% adds palatability. The dehydrated share matters most of all. Its water has gone already, so the same figure of fresh meat would count for less in the finished kibble.

Chicken is also the only meat on the list. For a household that wants to keep to one animal, that makes the choice straightforward. Salmon oil at 2% is the exception that stops it being a true single source recipe, since it puts fish in the bowl. A pup on a strict exclusion trial needs that noted rather than glossed over.

Starch is peas at 20% and dried potatoes, with no cereal anywhere. Beet pulp at 4% supplies a mild and well tolerated fibre. Linseed at 3% brings plant omega 3 alongside the marine omegas from the salmon oil. Carrots and apples follow in small amounts, with broccoli, tomatoes and spinach at trace level behind them, and the berries lower still.

The functional tail is written out properly. Dried chicory root at 0.5% brings fructo-oligosaccharides and inulin. Yeast extract at 0.5% brings mannan-oligosaccharides. Between them they keep the gut's own bacteria fed. Glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate each come in at 100 mg/kg. Those are stated doses, not names on a list. L-Carnitine at 150 mg and taurine at 1500 mg round out a panel that suits a food meant to grow a heavy frame steadily.

Protein 34.0%, fat 15.0%, fibre 3.5% and ash 7.0% is how the analysis reads, with energy at 370 kcal per 100g. Moisture is not declared, so the dry matter conversions run on our standard 8% assumption. That puts protein at 37.0% and carbohydrate at an estimated 35.3% of dry matter, against the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. Calcium is the absence that stands out. On a large breed growth bag it is the figure that decides how safely a big framed pup grows, and this label does not carry it.

It comes in a two and three quarter kilo bag and a ten kilo bag.

How much a large breed pup gets through changes month by month, and it changes quickly. Start from the maker's growth chart, then let a hands on check of the ribs and waist fine tune it. Our own energy estimate puts a pup of 20kg, somewhere between four and twelve months, on roughly 322 to 394 grams a day.