Pro Plan Medium Puppy Sensitive Skin OptiDerma review

Ingredients, as declared: High quality salmon* (17%) (including head, bone, meat), Dried salmon protein*, Rice* (16%), Animal fats, Corn starch, Corn protein meal*, Soya meal*, Dried egg*, Hydrolysed soya protein*, Digest, Dried beet pulp*, Corn*, Minerals, Dried vegetable fibre, Soyabean oil, Fish oil

Salmon opens the label at 17%, and Purina is candid about what sits inside that figure: head, bone and meat, not muscle meat alone. Dried salmon protein follows immediately, so the two leading animal entries are the same fish in fresh and dried form. Rice is declared at 16%, and corn starch, corn protein meal and corn appear further down, which puts maize into the recipe three separate times.

Animal fats sits fourth, a category with no species behind it. Digest lower down is a processed palatant, the coating that keeps a young dog interested in a bowl. Neither entry says which animals were involved. So a label that begins by looking like a fish diet could not carry a strict exclusion trial. Keep that in mind if that is why you were considering it.

Soya turns up in three forms here: soya meal, hydrolysed soya protein and soyabean oil. Dried egg and fish oil are on the list too, and dried beet pulp and dried vegetable fibre carry the fibre. If your puppy has already been steered away from soya or from egg, those are the entries to read twice.

Protein is declared at 32% and converts to 34.8% of dry matter, with fat at 20% as fed and 21.7% dry. The carbohydrate estimate comes to 32.6% of dry matter, crude fibre to 2.7% and ash to 8.2%, and energy is 406 kcal per 100g, a dense figure that suits the appetite of a growing dog. Calcium reads 1.63% of dry matter, pitched at medium-breed growth rather than at the slower build a large-breed puppy needs.

The added panel is printed in full: vitamin A at 31000 IU per kilogram, D3 at 860 and E at 550. Vitamin C follows at 140 mg per kilogram, alongside iron at 100, zinc at 95, manganese at 38, copper at 10 and iodine at 1.6. Tocopherol extracts from vegetable oils do the preserving at 64 mg per kilogram. What all of that adds up to for one particular puppy is a conversation to have with the vet who pointed you here.

It comes in a 3kg bag.