Specific CID Digestive Support review

Ingredients, as declared: Rice, egg powder, fish meal, maize, beet pulp, minerals (including zeolite), dextrose, pork fat, animal protein hydrolysate, vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), fish oil, Antarctic krill, yeast (including sources of ß-1.3/1.6-glucans and mannanoligo-saccharides), yeast fermentation product (Saccharomyces cerevisiae products, calcium carbonate), fructo-oligo-saccharides, psyllium husk, AuraGuard (calcium carbonate, citrus extract, maltodextrin, sodium chloride), xylo-oligo-saccharides, Yucca powder, rosemary extract. With natural antioxidants (tocopherols and vitamin C).

Rice opens the label with egg powder directly behind it, then fish meal and maize, so the kibble rests on cooked starch with two concentrated protein sources sitting high on the list. Fish meal is the only meat meal declared anywhere, and pork turns up as fat and not as a protein, which is the kind of detail that matters when a species is being tracked.

Antarctic krill adds a further animal ingredient lower down, and an animal protein hydrolysate names no species at all. Hydrolysis breaks protein into smaller fragments, so there is less for the gut to do with it. An unnamed source does mean this recipe cannot stand as a strict exclusion diet if that is what is being attempted.

Midway down the list comes dextrose, a simple sugar there for palatability and for the way it behaves in manufacture rather than for nutrition. Yucca powder near the end is the sort of inclusion makers reach for on the smell of what the dog produces. Neither has a percentage printed against it.

The mineral entry is declared as including zeolite, a mineral used in feed to bind moisture and ammonia as they pass through. Calcium carbonate appears twice over, once inside the yeast fermentation product and again inside AuraGuard, which Specific itemises as calcium carbonate, citrus extract, maltodextrin and sodium chloride. Salt is therefore on the list without a level beside it.

The gut directed group runs long. Yeast supplies beta glucans and mannan oligosaccharides, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product follows, and fructo oligosaccharides, xylo oligosaccharides and psyllium husk close it out. None of them carries a declared inclusion, so the label confirms they are present without saying how much.

The analysis declares protein at 25.0%, fat at 13.2% and crude fibre at 1.4%, with moisture at 8.5% and energy at 378 kcal per 100g. So little water is declared that the as fed figures sit close to their dry matter equivalents. Crude fibre that far down is what a low residue digestive diet is built to do, not something missing from it. Only the vet who knows the case can say whether that design fits your dog.

Specific lists the food for puppies and adults, and for older dogs too. The feeding table on the pack starts at 55 grams a day for a 2.5kg dog, reaches 205 grams at 15kg and tops out at 710 grams for an 80kg dog. Portions on a therapeutic diet are normally set in the consultation rather than read off the bag.

It is sold in 2kg, 7kg and 12kg bags, with the 2kg also available three at a time, and works out at £7.08 a kilo.