Natural Greatness Veterinary Dry: Gastrointestinal review

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Turkey and Chicken Meat 20%, Fresh Turkey Meat 11%, Potato, Sweet Potato, Tapioca, Chicken Oil 7%, Carob, Hydrolysed Chicken Meat 4.5%, Apple Pulp, Beet Pulp, Turkey and Chicken Liver Hydrolysate 3%, Salmon oil 2.7%, Dehydrated Pumpkin 1% (equivalent to 10% fresh pumpkin), Brewer's Yeast, Flaxseed, Inulin (FOS), Potassium Chloride, Fruit Mix 0.3% (apple and plum), Vegetable Mix 0.3% (tomato, oregano, sage, rosemary), Sodium Chloride, Hydrolysed Yeast Cell Wall (source f MOS), Glucosamine, Chondroitin Sulphate.

The six share an architecture. A dehydrated meat opens most of them, with a fresh meat of the same species behind it. The starch is some arrangement of potato, tapioca, peas, lentils and quinoa depending on which recipe you have. Apple pulp and beet pulp carry fibre in several of them, and carob turns up in four.

Every one of the six declares inulin as a source of FOS and hydrolysed yeast cell wall as a source of MOS, both prebiotic fibres. Every one also carries glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate. Four print the milligram per kilogram doses beside them; the gastrointestinal and renal recipes name the pair without figures. Manufactured glucosamine is usually drawn from shellfish shells, so a shellfish reaction on file is worth mentioning to the vet.

Hydrolysed fractions run right through the line, and which animal they come from depends on the recipe: chicken, salmon, turkey liver, or turkey and chicken liver together. The urinary one adds hydrolysed milk protein at 0.1%. Breaking a protein into fragments does not put the animal it came from outside the bowl, which is the thing to hold on to when the point of the diet is exclusion.

None of the six is a fish-free option: a fish oil is in all of them, salmon in five and blue fish in the renal recipe. Chicken oil appears in four, which puts chicken into recipes whose meat is otherwise turkey. The label style makes that easy to check, since every animal entry is named.

None of the six declares its moisture, so the dry matter columns rest on a standard assumption, and none prints a vitamin or trace mineral panel, so those doses are not there to read. Energy is given recipe by recipe and runs from 303 to 384 kcal per 100g, and four of the six write their feeding tables for a lightly exercised dog. Which of the six belongs in your dog's bowl is a choice to make with the vet who knows the diagnosis.

Turkey leads here, dehydrated turkey and chicken meat at 20% with fresh turkey at 11% behind it, and chicken returns as chicken oil at 7% and hydrolysed chicken meat at 4.5%. The starch comes from potato, sweet potato and tapioca. Liver hydrolysate at 3% does the palatability work, and dehydrated pumpkin is at 1%, which the label equates to 10% fresh pumpkin. Salmon oil sits at 2.7%.

Protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter, fat to 17.4% and crude fibre to 5.4%, with carbohydrate estimated at 44.6% and energy at 367 kcal per 100g. For a lightly exercised 15kg dog the table gives 197 grams a day.

All six are listed in the same two bag sizes, 2kg and 6kg.