Specific CIW Digestive Support review

Ingredients, as declared: Pork, maize, rice, minerals (including zeolite), vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), egg powder, dextrose, psyllium husk, fish oil, sunflower oil, yeast fermentation product (Saccharomyces cerevisiae products, calcium carbonate), yeast (source of mannan-oligosaccharides and ß-1.3/1.6-glucans), AuraGuard (calcium carbonate, citrus extract, maltodextrin, sodium chloride), Yucca powder.

Pork leads the recipe and is the only meat named in it, with maize and rice immediately behind. Egg powder further down brings a second animal protein, and fish is present only as oil, so no fish flesh reaches the bowl.

What stands out about this label is that everything on it identifies itself. There is no meat and animal derivatives category, no unnamed oil and nothing left to guess at, which makes a recipe far easier to check against a list of things your dog reacts to. The fish oil is the single entry that complicates a strictly one species plan.

The minerals are declared as including zeolite, and dextrose appears a few places later. Zeolite is used in feed for its ability to hold on to moisture and ammonia, while dextrose is a sugar included in a small way for palatability. Yucca powder finishes the list and is aimed at stool odour rather than at nutrition.

For the gut itself, psyllium husk brings the soluble fibre. Behind it sit a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product and a yeast the label ties to mannan oligosaccharides and beta glucans. The AuraGuard entry breaks down into calcium carbonate with citrus extract, plus maltodextrin and sodium chloride. Not one of that group carries a printed level.

The analysis gives protein at 7.5%, fat at 4.5% and crude fibre at 0.4%, with moisture at 69.7% and energy at 124 kcal per 100g. Wet food percentages always read small next to kibble because most of what sits in the pack is water, and at just under seventy per cent this one holds a little less water than many. Crude fibre this low is the shape of a low residue recipe, not a gap in it.

Specific lists it for puppies, adults and older dogs. The feeding guide starts at 80 grams a day for a 1kg dog, reaches 455 grams at 10kg and finishes at 900 grams for a 25kg dog. It is worth agreeing the daily amount and the number of meals with your vet.

It is sold as 300g units in packs of 6 and 100g units in packs of 7, at £9.34 a kilo.