Rocco Diet Care Diabetic: Chicken & Beef with Rice review

Rocco calls this Chicken and Beef with Rice, and that name is carrying a lot of weight because no ingredient list is published alongside it. Two meats and a grain are what you are told, and anything more specific would have to come from Rocco directly. On a therapeutic food that is a gap worth raising, particularly if your dog has reacted to something in the past.

The analysis is where the recipe shows its intent. Carbohydrate is estimated at 3.0% as fed, or 13.0% of the dry matter, a small share for a food with rice in its name. Holding starch down is the recognised approach in a diet sold for diabetic dogs. Protein converts to 45.2% of dry matter and fat to 28.3%, with moisture declared at 77.0%.

The rest of the panel reads 10.4% protein and 6.5% fat as fed, crude fibre at 1.1% or 4.8% of dry matter, and crude ash at 2.0%, which comes out at 8.7% dry. Energy is 105 kcal per 100g.

The added nutrients are printed with their doses: vitamin D3 at 200 IU, vitamin E at 20 mg and biotin at 300 micrograms. Zinc goes in as the sulphate at 25 mg and manganese as the sulphate at 1.4 mg. A stated biotin dose is not something every tin bothers to give you.

Timing and portion size matter as much as the recipe itself in a diabetic dog's routine, and neither of those is printed on a tin. How this fits your dog's day is your vet's decision to make.

It comes in 400g units, six to a pack or 24 in the saver pack, and works out at £4.11 a kilo. At the 800 grams a day a 15kg dog would eat at this energy level, that is around £3.29 a day.