Purina Pro Plan Development Puppy Small Breed Chicken & Rice: our recipe review

Purina Pro Plan · Development Puppy Small Breed Chicken & Rice · Dry food · All life stages

On the facts printed on its own label, Purina Pro Plan Development Puppy Small Breed Chicken & Rice scores 81 out of 100 on our rubric: a strong label by the standards of this database. The panel opens with Chicken, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 33% crude protein it ranks 1 of the 12 Purina Pro Plan recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 20%.

At 482 kcal a cup it is calorie dense: small measuring errors become extra meals over a month, so this is a food to weigh rather than eyeball. Its adequacy claim rests on feeding trials, the stronger of the two routes AAFCO allows. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 24 ingredient lines. 6 of them are animal source lines and 5 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 6, so 5 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. Salt appears at line 15 of 24: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 18; the 7 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

Its closest relative in this brand is Development Puppy Chicken & Rice, sold as Dry food: the two panels share most of their ingredients. In the first ten, this recipe has dried egg product, natural flavor, where its relative has whole grain corn, dried yeast. The full comparison is on the relative's own review page.

The label facts

How the score breaks down

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it. Names that appear in our ingredient dictionary link to it; the dictionary counts how many scored recipes carry each ingredient.

• Chicken. Chicken is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
• corn protein meal. corn protein meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• poultry by-product meal. poultry by-product meal is the rendered remainder of the named animal once the cuts sold for people are taken: organs, bone and other defined parts. It is legal, defined by AAFCO and nutritious, but its mix varies more from batch to batch than a named meal.
• rice. rice is a milled grain used for energy and to bind the kibble. Whole grain forms keep the bran and bring gentle fibre with them.
• whole grain wheat. whole grain wheat is wheat, a grain that brings energy and gluten protein. Our rubric flags it as a low cost calorie source, not as a danger.
• beef fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols. beef fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols is rendered fat from the named source. Fat is the densest energy in the recipe and carries much of its flavour.
• corn germ meal. corn germ meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• dried egg product. dried egg product has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
• natural flavor. natural flavor is a flavouring: a spray or powder added so the food tastes stronger to the dog. It is not a protein source and our rubric does not count it as one.
• fish meal. fish meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.

The brand's recall record

2023: Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EL Elemental dry dog food was recalled in February 2023 over potentially elevated vitamin D levels. The event covered a veterinary diet, not this recipe.

The event sits in the brand's veterinary line. We count brand level events and say which line they came from, so readers can judge relevance for themselves.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Purina Pro Plan recipes we scored

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.