Natural Dog Food Company Vet Care: Digestive Support review

Three of the five finish in our Good band, where the adult dry shelf has its middle, and the other two sit a rung below in Average. Hydrolysed meat at the head of every list, a fully dosed mineral panel and a carbohydrate load that stays close to the middle of the category are what carry them. The five spread across two neighbouring bands, so choose by the job you want the food to do rather than by the ranking.

Ingredients, as declared: Hydrolysed Freshly Prepared Turkey (26%), Sweet Potato, Potato, Hydrolysed Dried Turkey (11.5%), Turkey Fat (9%), Pea Protein, Lignocellulose (2.5%), Hydrolysed Turkey Gravy (2.5%), Minerals, FOS (1350 mg/kg), MOS (565 mg/kg), Marigold

Hydrolysing a protein means cutting it into smaller pieces before it goes into the recipe. The useful part is that a smaller fragment is less likely to be noticed by a dog whose system has decided it dislikes a particular meat. What is unusual here is that every hydrolysed entry still names its species, so you always know what your dog is eating. Across the five, declared protein converts to between 22.8% and 31.5% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to between 41.9% and 46.8%, against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food.

In all five recipes the binding comes from potato and sweet potato, and no grain appears anywhere. Pea protein, a plant protein, also turns up in Digestive Support and in Joint Support & Weight Control. It lifts the headline figure without bringing what meat brings, so read those two totals with that in mind.

Each recipe then earns its name. Dental Support leans on sodium hexametaphosphate at 6,150 mg/kg, an ingredient chosen for softening tartar, with peppermint at 0.4%, green tea extract at 0.2% and cranberry at 0.2% behind it. Digestive Support raises the prebiotics far above the rest of the range, FOS at 1350 mg/kg and MOS at 565 mg/kg. Both are aimed at the friendly bacteria in the gut. Joint Support & Weight Control brings green lipped mussel at 0.3% together with L-Carnitine at 1,442 mg, and runs at 9.8% fat on a dry matter basis with fibre up at 9.2%. Skin & Coat answers with dried algae at 0.2% and borage oil at 0.2%, and Daily Health rounds off with salmon oil at 6% and coconut oil at 2%.

Every label prints a dose for its trace minerals, and that is more than most ranges manage. Zinc runs between 48 mg and 69 mg, iron sits at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg and iodine between 0.96 mg and 1.33 mg per kilo. They come as sulphates and iodates, not as the chelated forms a dog's gut absorbs most readily. That is a modest difference, and the printed doses go a long way towards answering it.

Marigold closes every list, and the fruit and herb tail on Daily Health, from turmeric and orange to chamomile and carrot, sits at 0.1% each. That is seasoning, not substance. These recipes stand on their hydrolysed meat, which is exactly where the weight belongs.

The one recipe here built on a single animal, with turkey fresh at 26%, dried at 11.5%, its fat at 9% and its gravy at 2.5%, and no other species anywhere on the list. The prebiotics run far higher than in the rest of the range, FOS at 1350 mg/kg and MOS at 565 mg/kg. Lignocellulose at 2.5% adds bulk, and pea protein props up a declared 25.0% protein.

£10.83 a kilo across the range, sold in 2kg and 6kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at between £2.51 and £2.91 a day depending on which recipe you pick. Both ends of that range assume around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 201 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg. If the two differ, the waistline decides.