Pro Plan NC Neurocare Dry review

Ingredients, as declared: Corn, Dried poultry protein, Wheat flour, Dried salmon protein, Medium chain triglycerides oil (6.5%), Dried beet pulp, Rice, Dried egg, Corn protein meal, Digest, Fish oil, Minerals

Corn heads the label, dried poultry protein sits behind it and wheat flour comes third, so two cereals fall inside the opening three entries. Dried salmon protein is next, with rice and corn protein meal further along. Poultry is a category term covering any domestic fowl, so the largest meat entry on this label never commits to a bird.

Medium chain triglycerides oil is printed at 6.5%, a large declared share for a single oil and plainly the entry Purina has organised the formulation around. Fish oil and dried egg fill out the animal side beneath it, and digest coats the kibble to keep it appetising for a dog whose appetite may need coaxing.

For an owner tracking what their dog reacts to, this is a mixed label. Wheat, maize, egg and fish are all named outright, while the poultry protein and the digest leave their species open. That weighs less on a food chosen for a specific clinical reason than it would on an everyday bag, but it is still worth having clear in your head before you start.

Protein is declared at 30% as fed and works out at 32.6% of dry matter, fat at 15% and 16.3% dry, with crude fibre at only 1.6% of dry matter and ash at 8.2%. The carbohydrate estimate reaches 41.3% of dry matter and the label gives 392 kcal per 100g. A cereal-forward build with very little fibre is the shape this kind of formulation usually takes. Read those figures as choices the maker has made deliberately, and let the vet who prescribed it weigh them against what your dog needs.

The vitamin and mineral panel is dosed in print: vitamin A at 37000 IU per kilogram, D3 at 1200 and E at 600. Vitamin C is at 165 mg per kilogram, with a B group total of 350. The trace minerals run iron at 140, zinc at 130, manganese at 52, copper at 15, iodine at 2.2 and selenium at 0.15, that last one supplied as sodium selenite.

The bag's guide runs from 65 grams a day at 2.5kg to 610 grams at 70kg, with 220 grams set against a 15kg dog. Treat it as a starting point, because on a prescribed diet the portion is normally settled at the practice.

The bags come in 3kg and 12kg sizes.