Arden Grange VetCare Hypoallergenic Dry review

Ingredients, as declared: Hydrolysed fresh chicken 26%, sweet potato 12%, potato, potato protein, pumpkin 10%, potato starch, chicken fat, lucerne, linseed 3%, minerals, sunflower oil, chicken digest, algae (high DHA*), mannan-oligosaccharides (prebiotic MOS) 0.2%, fructo-oligosaccharides (prebiotic FOS) 0.2%. Protein sources: hydrolysed chicken, potato protein. Carbohydrate sources: sweet potato, potato, pumpkin.

Hydrolysed fresh chicken opens the list at 26%, and the hydrolysis is the whole idea. The protein has been broken into fragments small enough that an immune system is less likely to recognise them as chicken. Sweet potato at 12%, potato, potato protein, pumpkin at 10% and potato starch make up the bulk behind it, so nothing carrying the carbohydrate here is a grain.

Chicken is the only species printed anywhere on the label, although it turns up in three forms. Alongside the hydrolysed chicken sit chicken fat and chicken digest, digest being a processed coating that keeps kibble appealing once the protein has been taken apart. If your vet has set an exclusion trial, that is the detail to raise with them, because the recipe stays on one animal but the fat and the coating are not themselves hydrolysed.

Potato protein is declared as a second protein source next to the hydrolysed chicken, a plant protein doing work that an elimination recipe cannot hand to a second meat. Linseed at 3% and sunflower oil follow, and the DHA comes from algae rather than from fish, which keeps fish off the ingredient list altogether.

The prebiotic pair is printed with figures, mannan-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.2% each. In the additive panel DL-methionine is dosed at 2500mg and L-tryptophan at 500mg, with the vitamins and the chelated trace minerals each itemised beside them.

On the analysis, protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and fat to 16.3%, with fibre at 3.3%, ash at 8.7% and the carbohydrate estimate at 43.4% of dry matter. Energy is declared at 376 kcal per 100g, and the label's own guide puts a dog of 15 to 25kg on 200 to 300 grams a day. A diet like this is issued to a plan, so the portion and the length of any trial are for the vet who started your dog on it to set.

It is sold in 2kg and 14kg bags, with multipacks of 4 x 2 kg and 2 x 14 kg listed alongside them.