Natural Greatness Veterinary Dry: Hepatic & Cardiac review

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated turkey and chicken meat (14%), Fresh chicken meat (14%), Potato (14%), Peas (14%), Tapioca (14%), Chicken oil (10%), Sweet potato, Carob, Apple pulp, Turkey and chicken hydrolyzate liver (2.5%), Salmon oil (1.5%), Beet pulp, Yeasts, Linseed (0.6%), Potassium chloride, Fruit mix (apple and plum) (0.3%), Vegetable mix (tomato, rosemary, sage, oregano) (0.3%), Sodium chloride, Dehydrated Pumpkin (0.1%), Inulin (source of FOS), Hydrolyzed yeast cell wall (source of MOS), Glucosamine 800 mg/kg, Chondroitin sulfate 500 mg/kg.

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.

Five entries sit level at 14%: dehydrated turkey and chicken meat, fresh chicken meat, potato, peas and tapioca. Chicken oil at 10% comes ahead of sweet potato and carob. Turkey and chicken liver hydrolysate is at 2.5%, salmon oil at 1.5% and linseed at 0.6%, and dehydrated pumpkin trails at 0.1%.

Protein converts to 19.6% of dry matter and fat to the same 19.6%, with carbohydrate estimated at 48.9% and energy at 383 kcal per 100g. Keeping protein back while the fat carries the calories is the usual shape for a recipe aimed at the liver, so read the protein figure as the design rather than as a gap. Glucosamine is printed at 800 mg and chondroitin sulphate at 500 mg per kilogram, and the guide gives 189 grams a day for a lightly exercised 15kg dog.

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