Pooch & Mutt Veterinary Hepatic/Liver Dry Food review

Ingredients, as declared: Yellow Peas (22 %), Potatoes (20 %), Eggs (14 %), Dried Apple Pulp (14 %), Buckwheat (9.8 %), Chicken Fat (8 %), Hydrolysed Turkey Protein (7 %), Salmon Oil (2 %), Hydrolysed Chicken Liver (2 %), Pea Protein, Dried Algae (Ascophyllum nodosum, 0.5 %), Milk Thistle Seeds (0.2 %), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.022 %), β-glucans (0.02 %), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.02 %), Mojave Yucca (0.02 %), Dried Sea Buckthorn (0.015 %) Lactobacillus helveticus HA-122 inactivated (15x10⁹ cells/kg).

Yellow peas open the label at 22% and potatoes follow at 20%, so plant starch makes up the body of this kibble and not meat. Eggs come next at 14%, matched exactly by dried apple pulp at the same figure, and buckwheat adds 9.8% on top. The egg is the only whole animal food named anywhere on the list, which leaves it carrying the recipe's protein.

Everything else on the animal side has been through processing before it goes in. Hydrolysed turkey protein is declared at 7% and hydrolysed chicken liver at 2%, with chicken fat at 8% and salmon oil at 2% supplying the fats. Hydrolysing cuts a protein into fragments the immune system is less apt to react to. The sources behind those fragments are still turkey and chicken, so a dog held away from either is not on a clean run here. The salmon oil brings fish onto the label too, as an oil and not as a meat.

Milk thistle seeds appear at 0.2%, the one botanical Pooch & Mutt has singled out for this part of the range. Dried algae is listed at 0.5%, and the dosed tail of the panel runs mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.022%, beta-glucans and fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.02% each, Mojave yucca at that same 0.02% and dried sea buckthorn at 0.015%. Closing the list is an inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture, printed at 15x10⁹ cells per kilogram.

On the analysis, protein reads 17% as fed and converts to 18.9% of dry matter, while fat is 15% as fed and 16.7% dry. Crude fibre lands at 5.2% of dry matter and ash at 3.8%, the carbohydrate estimate reaches 55.4% dry, and the label declares 369 kcal per 100g. Calcium sits at 0.78% of the dry matter. Protein pitched that low with starch that high is how a diet in this category is normally drawn up, not a gap in the recipe. Whether those proportions suit your own dog is for the vet who suggested it to say.

The feeding guide on the bag works in weight brackets, putting a dog between 10 and 25kg at 170 to 330 grams a day and a dog of 50kg or more at 560 grams. On a food chosen for a clinical reason the daily amount is usually set at the practice, not read straight off the pack.

It is sold in 2kg and 10kg bags, which works out at £7.40 a kilo. Reading about 228 grams a day for a 15kg dog off the label's weight brackets, that is roughly £1.68 a day.