Specific CKD-HY Heart & Kidney Support hydrolysed review

Ingredients, as declared: Dried potato, pork fat, hydrolysed salmon protein, fish oil, beet pulp, protein hydrolysate, potato protein, minerals, vegetable oil, cellulose powder, fructo-oligo-saccharides, AuraGuard (calcium carbonate citrus extract maltodextrin sodium chloride). With natural antioxidants (tocopherols, rosemary extract and vitamin C).

Dried potato leads and pork fat comes second, a striking position for a fat and a clear signal of where the calories in this food are meant to come from. Hydrolysed salmon protein is third and fish oil fourth.

Hydrolysis breaks protein into fragments so small that a sensitised immune system often does not spot them. That is why a recipe of this kind reads the way it does. A second entry says only protein hydrolysate without naming what it came from, and vegetable oil is left unnamed as well, so as tight as this list is, it is not a fully identified one.

Only two species can be picked out on the label, fish and pork, and no grain appears at all. For a household running a food trial alongside a heart or kidney case, that combination is the reason this version exists rather than the standard recipe.

Protein is declared at 16.0% and fat at 15.5%, with energy at 384 kcal per 100g and moisture at 8.5%. Protein pitched at that level is the defining feature of the diet, and the fat is there so the dog can hold weight while eating less of it. What those figures ought to look like for your own dog is not something a label can settle.

Potato protein and cellulose powder supply the rest of the structure, crude fibre reads 2.2%, and beet pulp with fructo oligosaccharides handles the gut side. Sodium chloride sits inside the AuraGuard entry, next to calcium carbonate, citrus extract and maltodextrin. Salt is therefore present without a declared amount, and the pack prints no phosphorus figure anywhere.

Feeding starts at 50 grams a day for a 2.5kg dog, sits at 200 grams for a 15kg dog and reaches 700 grams at 80kg. Those are the maker's figures; the ration that matters is the one agreed at the practice.

It comes in a 4kg bag, sold singly or in a pack of three.