Dr. Marty Freeze Dried Nature's Blend Sensitivity Select Dog Food

Dr. Marty Nature's Blend Sensitivity Select Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food

Sensitivity Select is the bag you reach for when you are trying to work out what a dog is reacting to. It is built on four birds and nothing else: turkey, duck, goose and quail, plus turkey liver. No beef. No fish. No chicken. No egg, no dairy, and no pea ingredient of any kind.

That list of absences is the product. Everything else about it is ordinary Nature's Blend.

An honest word about "novel protein"

Novel means a protein your dog hasn't eaten before, and that depends entirely on your dog rather than on the bag. Goose and quail are genuinely uncommon in pet food. Duck is less common but not rare. Turkey is in a great many foods, and it is the first ingredient here.

So if your dog has been on a turkey-containing food and is reacting to something, this bag may not give you the clean slate you are after. If the suspicion is beef, chicken, fish, egg, dairy or peas, it rules all of them out at once, which is a genuinely useful thing to be able to do in one purchase.

Food elimination trials are also slow and strict... typically eight to twelve weeks with nothing else passing the dog's lips, treats and flavoured chews included. Worth talking to your vet before you start rather than halfway through.

What's in it

Turkey, duck, goose and quail lead, then turkey liver. After that flaxseed, sweet potato, spinach, pumpkin seed, then cranberry, blueberry, apple and carrot, finished with ginger, kelp, sunflower seed, broccoli and kale. Mixed tocopherols, a natural vitamin E, are the only preservative. There is no corn, wheat, soy or added grain.

Note how short that list is next to the rest of the line: twenty items against Essential Wellness's twenty-four, and no egg or pea among them. Fewer ingredients is the point of a diet like this.

At 40% protein and 33% fat it is as rich as the standard bag. Omega-3 is guaranteed at 1.5%, lower than the fish-based formulas, which follows from there being no fish in it.

If your dog is small

Sensitivity Select Small Bites is the same recipe in a smaller nugget, and we mean that literally... identical ingredients, identical guaranteed analysis, identical calories. We compared both packages. Only the piece size and the feeding chart differ, and the Small Bites chart stops at 25 lb.

Full ingredient list

Turkey, Duck, Goose, Quail, Turkey Liver, Flaxseed, Sweet Potato, Spinach, Pumpkin Seed, Cranberry, Blueberry, Apple, Carrot, Ginger, Dried Kelp, Salt, Sunflower Seed, Broccoli, Kale, Mixed Tocopherols (preservative).

Guaranteed analysis

• Crude Protein (min) ... 40%
• Crude Fat (min) ... 33%
• Crude Fiber (max) ... 4%
• Moisture (max) ... 6%
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min) ... 1.5%*

*Omega-3 fatty acids are not recognized as essential nutrients by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles.

Read off the bag in our store. The manufacturer's own website publishes 37% protein and 27% fat for this formula, and the package does not agree. The package governs.

AAFCO statement

Formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for adult maintenance. Not a puppy food... Healthy Growth is the only bag in the line with a growth statement, and it contains beef, salmon and egg, so it is not an option for a dog on an elimination diet.

Calorie content

5,273 kcal/kg ... 227 kcal per cup. This is the most calorie-dense formula per kilogram in the line, but a level cup weighs only about 43 grams, so a cup of it carries fewer calories than a cup of Essential Wellness. A cup means a standard 8-fluid-ounce dry measuring cup, filled level, and it does not hold 8 ounces by weight.

Feeding guidelines

Dr. Marty's published amounts, dry and before water, split across two meals.

Starting points, not prescriptions. Check body condition after two or three weeks... ribs findable under a thin covering, a waist visible from above... and adjust from there. Working dogs, dogs outdoors in winter, and pregnant or nursing females all need more.

How to rehydrate

Warm water at two parts food to one part water, let it stand three minutes, then stir through. This food is raw and uncooked, so handle it like raw meat: wash hands and bowl afterwards, and don't leave a made-up portion out at room temperature.

Switching over

Ten days. 25% of the new food on days one to three, 50% on four to six, 75% on seven to nine, all of it from day ten. If you are running a proper elimination trial your vet may want a faster or slower changeover... follow them rather than this.

Sizes, and how many cups you get

6 oz, 16 oz, 48 oz and 80 oz, roughly 4, 10½, 31½ and 52¾ level cups. For a 50 lb dog eating 3 cups a day that is about two days, three and a half days, ten days, and two and a half weeks.

Storage

Seal it fully after each use, somewhere cool and dry. Dr. Marty puts an opened bag at up to three months, shortened by heat and humidity.

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