Specific CED-DM Endocrine support review

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh fish, fish meal, oats, dried peas, hydrolysed salmon protein, potato protein, maize protein, pea starch, cellulose powder, animal protein hydrolysate, beet pulp, pork fat, fish oil, vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), egg powder, Antarctic krill, minerals, vegetable oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, psyllium husk, taurine, yeast (source of ß-1.3/1.6-glucans), methionine, L-carnitine, green tea extract, pomegranate extract, cranberry extract, rosemary extract. With natural antioxidants (tocopherols and vitamin C).

Fresh fish opens the list with fish meal directly behind it, so the recipe is fish led in both a wet and a dried form of the same protein. Oats come third and dried peas fourth, then hydrolysed salmon protein, potato protein, maize protein and pea starch, which puts a fair amount of plant protein into the total alongside the fish.

Beyond the fish the animal side takes in pork fat, egg powder and Antarctic krill, with fish oil further down and an animal protein hydrolysate carrying no species name at all. Fish, pork and egg are therefore all in the recipe, which is the list to run past the vet if your dog reacts to any of them.

Fibre is worked hard in this one. Cellulose powder, beet pulp, psyllium husk and fructo-oligo-saccharides all appear, and crude fibre is declared at 7.0%, a figure the label prints plainly. Fibre at that level is a deliberate lever in a diet of this type rather than filler put in to bulk the bag out.

A long, itemised tail closes the list: taurine, L-carnitine and methionine, a yeast listed as a source of beta-glucans, then green tea, pomegranate, cranberry and rosemary extracts. None of those carry a printed percentage, so you can see that they are in the recipe without being able to see how much of each.

The analysis prints 38.0% protein, 12.0% fat and 7.0% crude fibre against 9.5% moisture, with energy at 336 kcal per 100g. Ash is not printed, which leaves the carbohydrate share unstated. Protein that high with the energy held down is precisely the balance a diet of this type is built to strike. Whether it fits your dog is your vet's judgement to make, not a reading of the label.

It is sold in 2kg and 12kg bags, with a 3 x 2kg multipack alongside. The label's feeding guide opens at 60g a day for a 2.5kg dog, reads 230g at 15kg and tops out at 800g for an 80kg dog.