Cooper & Co Sensitive review

Cooper & Co Sensitive comes out in our Good band, which is exactly where the typical adult dry food finishes, so the two sit shoulder to shoulder. The duck share is generous and the label is specific about how it is made up. What keeps the reading where it is comes down to the protein figure once the water has left the fresh duck, plus a starch share a shade above what a dry food usually carries. For a dog whose gut has been the whole problem, that is often a trade worth making.

Ingredients, as declared: 50% Duck (Freshly Prepared Duck (23%), Dried Duck (22%), Duck Fat (3%), Duck Gravy (2%)), Sweet Potato (28%), Tapioca (14.5%), Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil (1%), Brewer's Yeast, Minerals, Chicory, Dried Blackberry, Yucca Extract (192 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (95 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (25 mg/kg)

Duck at 50% is broken out in full: 23% freshly prepared duck, 22% dried duck, 3% duck fat and 2% duck gravy. The dried share matters more than the fresh one, because most of the water in fresh meat leaves during cooking, so the 22% dried duck is what still stands in the finished kibble. Protein converts to 25.5% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 47.9%, close to the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

The main carbohydrate is sweet potato at 28%, a sensible pick that digests steadily and carries fibre with it. Tapioca at 14.5% is the plainer half of the pairing. It is pressed from cassava root and is essentially starch, which is exactly what binds a grain-free kibble together, but it arrives with almost nothing else attached.

The digestive work is spread across several small entries, with no single headline ingredient. Beet pulp supplies steady fibre. The inulin in chicory root feeds the bacteria in the lower gut. Fructooligosaccharides at 95 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 25 mg/kg come at the same job from the other direction. For stool odour there is yucca extract at 192 mg/kg, the traditional choice for it. Brewer's yeast adds B vitamins, and dried blackberry is a garnish more than a nutrient.

Every trace mineral comes with a printed dose: zinc at 130 mg, iron at 160 mg, manganese at 110 mg, copper at 60 mg, iodine at 1.58 mg and selenium at 0.60 mg per kilo. Calcium works out at 2.17% of dry matter, a full level for a grown dog. That is one reason to read this as an adult recipe.

One honest limit on the single-animal reading. Duck is the only land meat here, and for an owner steering clear of chicken or beef that is the job done. Salmon oil at 1% is in there as the marine omega 3 source though, so the label is not fish free. Plan a strict elimination trial around that entry.

Sold in 1.5kg and 10kg bags, at £7.30 a kilo.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, expect roughly 231 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £1.68 a day. The label asks 150 to 250 grams for a dog of that weight, so the two guides land in much the same place.