Leaps & Bounds

Leaps & Bounds sits at the $$ price tier, and it is the only brand in our index that does. Everything cheaper sits at $, including ProBalance, Woofin' Good! and Black & Gold; everything dearer starts at $$$. Its ownership is also the most plainly stated of the three pet-specialty house brands we score: Greencross, the Petbarn and Petstock group. Providore and The Nosh Project are recorded only as Pet Circle exclusive ranges, with no parent company named.

A named parent has not produced a strong transparency result. Leaps & Bounds takes 54 of 100 there, its weakest of the six pillars and the lowest figure of any brand we score that is not a supermarket house label: Providore and The Nosh Project both reach 57, ProBalance 56. Availability runs the other way at 80 of 100, level with Royal Canin and behind only Black Hawk's 83, and it is earned from a single stockist: Petbarn is the only retailer we record carrying it.

The value pillar is where the positioning and the scoring part company. Leaps & Bounds takes 64 of 100 on Price and Value, a pillar that carries 25 of the 100 points on our card. Eleven brands in our index score higher on it, and five of them share the Petbarn shelf: SavourLife at 78, Meals for Mutts at 75, Black Hawk at 74, Prime100 at 72 and Ivory Coat at 71.

The clearest illustration is a ten cent gap. Our estimates put the Leaps & Bounds Grain Free Adult 15kg at $1.90 a day and the SavourLife Original Adult 18kg at $2.00, both stocked at Petbarn. The Leaps & Bounds bag rates 51 out of 100 on our product card; the SavourLife bag rates 83. Black Hawk Adult Chicken & Rice 20kg lands at $2.10 a day and rates 85. Prices are editorial estimates, so confirm them with the retailer.

It makes sense if you already shop at Petbarn and want grain-free without specialty pricing. At $109.00 for 15kg it works out at $7.27 a kilo, the cheapest grain-free dry food in our index and 47 cents a kilo under the next one, Petzyo Kibble That Counts Chicken & Turkey 8kg at $7.74. Petbarn member pricing takes the bag to $99.00, roughly $6.60 a kilo. For everyday top-ups on a fixed budget, in a store you can drive to, that is a defensible reason to buy it.

Skip it if the panel matters more than the shelf price. The first ingredient is chicken meal at 25 per cent protein and 14 per cent fat, against SavourLife's grain-free lamb bag at 28 and 16 and Black Hawk's grain-free chicken at 30 and 18 in the same 15kg size. Its 51 out of 100 is the lowest product rating of any grain-free dry food we price. If cost per day is your only lever, ProBalance runs $1.50. This is not veterinary advice.