Pooch & Mutt Veterinary Renal/Kidney Dry Food review

Ingredients, as declared: Yellow Peas (44 %), Chicken Fat (12 %), Buckwheat (10 %), Eggs (10 %), Dried Apple Pulp (9.2 %), Hydrolysed Salmon Protein (7 %), Salmon Oil (2 %), Hydrolysed Chicken Liver (2 %), Egg Shells (a source of calcium, 1.5 %), Pea Protein, Potassium Citrate (0.8 %), Psyllium Husks & Seeds (0.5 %), Dried Algae (Ascophyllum nodosum, 0.5 %), Chitosan (0.08 %), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.025 %), β-glucans (0.022 %), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.02 %), Mojave Yucca (0.02 %), Dried Sea Buckthorn (0.015 %), Lactobacillus helveticus HA-122 inactivated (15x10⁹ cells/kg).

Yellow peas take up far more of this recipe than they would in an ordinary dry food, declared at 44% of the mix. Chicken fat is second at 12%, then buckwheat at 10%, eggs at 10% and dried apple pulp at 9.2%. That ordering puts the egg, the only whole animal food on the list, fourth behind a legume and a rendered fat.

The named protein is hydrolysed salmon protein at 7%. Hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% and salmon oil at 2% come behind it, and pea protein is listed further down without a figure of its own. Both protein entries have been broken down before they reach the kibble. Between the fat, the liver, the egg and the oil, the label still takes in chicken, egg and fish, so read it closely for a dog kept clear of any of them.

Two entries mark this out from an everyday bag. Potassium citrate is printed at 0.8%, an added mineral salt of the sort makers reach for when the mineral balance of a diet is being steered and not simply topped up. Chitosan follows at 0.08%, a shellfish-derived fibre that turns up in diets of this type and very rarely elsewhere. Egg shells are declared at 1.5% and named on the label itself as the source of calcium.

Soluble fibre comes from psyllium husks and seeds at 0.5%, with dried algae matching them at 0.5%. The small dosed entries finish the panel: mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.025%, beta-glucans at 0.022%, fructo-oligosaccharides and Mojave yucca at 0.02% apiece, and dried sea buckthorn at 0.015%. An inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus culture is printed at 15x10⁹ cells per kilogram.

The analysis reads 13% protein as fed, converting to 14.4% of dry matter, and 17% fat, or 18.9% dry. Crude fibre works out at 4.4% of dry matter, ash at 5.3% and the carbohydrate estimate at 57.0%, with energy declared as 377 kcal per 100g and calcium at 0.78% of dry matter. A protein figure that low would be unusual in an everyday adult food. Holding protein down is central to how a renal diet is drawn up, so read it as a design decision and not something missing. Whether that design is right for your dog belongs to the vet who knows the case.

The guide on the pack runs by bodyweight, from 100 grams a day at the smallest end up to 550 grams for a dog of 50kg. A 10 to 25kg dog is placed between 165 and 325 grams. Most owners on a diet like this end up feeding to the figure their practice gives them instead.

Bags come in 2kg and 10kg, at £7.40 a kilo. An estimate of 223 grams a day for a 15kg dog puts the daily figure near £1.65.