Pro Plan Medium & Large Grain Free Sensitive Digestion review

Taking the grain out lifts this recipe clear of the brand's cereal-based kibbles and into our Good band, which is where the great bulk of adult dry food finishes. Carbohydrate converts to 40.2% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical, and protein to 30.4%, so the swap to cassava and pea starch has taken nothing away from the bowl. Two things hold it back from climbing higher. Turkey at 16% is the only species carrying a figure, and soya appears in two forms. A note on the figures as well: the label omits moisture, so the dry matter conversions assume the 8% a kibble normally carries.

Ingredients, as declared: High quality turkey (including back and chest) (16%), Dried chicken protein, Dried cassava (12%), Pea starch, Soya meal, Animal fats, Dried poultry protein, Dried beet pulp* (6%), Dried pea, Digest, Soya protein powder, Dried egg, Minerals, Fish oil, *prebiotics source.

Turkey opens at 16%, with back and chest named, and turkey is a sensible choice for a digestion recipe since it is a lean, easily handled meat. It is fresh turkey, so the oven claims most of its weight, and the dried chicken protein directly behind it does much of the real protein work. Dried poultry protein turns up further down as a third bird entry, this one with no species attached.

The grain free promise is kept by dried cassava at 12% and pea starch, with dried pea behind them. Cassava is a root starch rather than a cereal, which is exactly why it is here, and it brings no gluten with it. Pea starch is the refined fraction of the pea, in there to bind. The plant side of the bag is there for structure.

The digestion brief shows up in the fibre and the small print. Dried beet pulp is declared at 6% and carries the label's own asterisk marking it as the prebiotic source, which is more useful than the vague gut-health language these recipes usually get. Fibre lands at 3.3% of dry matter. Taurine is dosed at 2000 mg per kilo, an amino acid most dogs can make for themselves and one that manufacturers increasingly add anyway.

Soya meal and soya protein powder both appear, and between them they lift the protein figure without another animal going into the mix. Most dogs never register them. Soya does have a long-standing reputation for troubling the genuinely reactive dog though, which is worth holding in mind on a recipe sold for sensitive digestion.

The mineral panel is dosed entry by entry. Zinc is at 130 mg per kilo, iron at 140 mg, manganese at 54 mg, copper at 15 mg and iodine at 2.3 mg. Vitamin C sits at 140 mg and vitamin E at 550 IU. Dried egg near the end brings a little more digestible protein, and the marine omega 3s arrive with the fish oil.

£3.68 a kilo, sold in a 12kg bag.

Feeding a 15kg adult in moderate condition comes out near 220 grams and £0.81 a day, using the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). For dogs getting under an hour of exercise the label's own table asks 170 grams at 10kg and 315 grams at 25kg. Start there and adjust by condition.