Pro Plan Medium Puppy Sensitive Digestion OptiDigest review

This recipe reads in our Average band, under the Good band that the middle of the puppy dry market holds. Protein and processing reads Average, with nutritional balance and transparency both on Good. That is a fair picture of a food whose analysis and supplement panel do their job while the ingredient list leans on cereal and unnamed animal entries. The digestive additions are real work rather than decoration; they simply sit on a base of grain and plant protein.

Ingredients, as declared: High quality lamb (including lungs and liver) (20%), Dried poultry protein, Rice (15%), Corn, Soya meal, Animal fats, Dried beet pulp (5%), Digest, Corn protein meal, Dried egg, Corn grits, Minerals, Fish oil, *prebiotics source.

Lamb at 20% leads, and the label says what it includes: lungs and liver alongside the meat. Offal earns its place in a growth food. Few natural foods carry vitamin A, copper and B12 as densely as liver. It is fresh lamb, so a good part of that fifth is water before the kibble is ever cooked.

Dried poultry protein sits second, and that changes what this food can be used for. Owners often reach for lamb because a pup has reacted to chicken, but with poultry protein high on the list and unnamed as to species, the bird has not left the bowl. Know that before you choose this as a swap for a chicken based food.

Rice at 15% is the main cereal and a sensible one for an unsettled gut, cooked starch that most dogs break down easily. Corn, corn protein meal and corn grits follow it, which is a lot of maize for a recipe aimed at sensitivity, and soya meal adds plant protein of its own on top.

Dried beet pulp at 5% is the deliberate part of the digestive design. This fibre ferments moderately. It firms a stool, and it feeds the bacteria downstream. At 5% that is a working inclusion. The label also flags a prebiotic source at the end of the list, though with no name and no dose attached there is nothing there to weigh.

Calcium is printed, and it comes in at 1.63% of dry matter. That reads sensibly for the medium framed pup this bag is sold for, with crude ash converting to 8.4% of dry matter around it. A pup on course for a large adult size works to a lower calcium ceiling and belongs on a large breed growth recipe instead.

The supplement panel is generously dosed: 29000 IU/kg of vitamin A, 960 IU/kg of vitamin D3, 550 IU/kg of vitamin E and 140 mg/kg of vitamin C. Iron at 130 mg/kg, zinc at 110 mg/kg and manganese at 47 mg/kg are named underneath. Fish oil brings marine omega 3 and dried egg lifts the protein quality. On a dry matter basis the analysis converts to 32.6% protein and 20.7% fat, at 400 kcal per 100g.

Sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

No single daily figure holds through a whole puppyhood. Take the pack's guide for the stage your pup is at now, and let the way their ribs feel under your hand set the next adjustment.