Specific CID-LF Digestive Support Low Fat review

Ingredients, as declared: Tapioca, rice protein, hydrolysed salmon protein, minerals, fish oil, potato protein, animal protein hydrolysate, vegetable oil, beet pulp, vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), cellulose powder, yeast (including sources of nucleotides, β-1.3/1.6-glucans and mannan-oligo-saccharides), psyllium husk, fructooligo-saccharides, AuraGuard (calcium carbonate, citrus extract, maltodextrin, sodium chloride), rosemary extract. With natural antioxidants (tocopherols and vitamin C).

Tapioca takes first place, rice protein second and hydrolysed salmon protein third. That opening says a great deal about how this one is put together. No whole meat is declared anywhere on the label. The protein arrives as plant concentrates and as hydrolysed material instead. In a diet of this type that is deliberate, not an omission.

Salmon is named where it appears, but a second entry reads only animal protein hydrolysate with no species attached, and fish oil sits high in the list as well. If an elimination trial is why you are looking at this food, take those two entries to your vet first.

Fat is declared at 6.6%, the figure this recipe is built around and the one that separates it from the standard digestive diet in the same family. Vegetable oil appears alongside the fish oil without naming its plant, so the fat that is in there is only partly identified.

Crude fibre reads 3.7%, carried by cellulose powder, beet pulp and psyllium husk. Cellulose powder is purified plant fibre, added for bulk and for the way it travels through rather than for nutrients of its own. It is a common sight in recipes designed to hold calories down.

Nucleotides come from the yeast, along with beta glucans and mannan oligosaccharides, and fructo oligosaccharides sit behind it. AuraGuard closes the functional part of the list. Specific itemises it as calcium carbonate and citrus extract, with maltodextrin and sodium chloride alongside.

Protein is declared at 23.0% and energy at 328 kcal per 100g, with moisture at 8.5%. Given how dry the food is, those as fed percentages are close to what a dry matter reading would show. Set against everyday adult food both the fat and the energy look restrained, and on a low fat therapeutic diet that is exactly what has been engineered in.

The table on the pack begins at 60 grams a day for a 2kg dog, gives 235 grams at 15kg and runs to 820 grams at 80kg. Where your dog lands on it is something to settle with the vet who prescribed the food.

It comes as a 1.6kg bag at £7.95 a kilo, singly or in a pack of three.