The FidoVet Gelato Ice Cream Mix for Dogs in pineapple is a 40 g tub of Italian gelato mix for dogs — add water to the line, shake it, freeze it for three hours, and it sets into a pale gold gelato.

Key Features

• A powder you make up yourself: 40 g of mix plus water gives about 110 g of finished gelato
• Freeze-dried pineapple powder at 0.5%, with turmeric powder
• FidoVet publishes 8.8% crude protein, 7.2% crude fat, 3% crude ash and 0.1% crude fibre
• Fortified with Vitamin A at 10,000 IU/kg, D3 at 3,200 IU/kg, E at 20 mg/kg, K3 at 2 mg/kg and B1 at 6 mg/kg
• Freeze-dried real fruit and natural vitamin E as the antioxidant. FidoVet states there are no artificial flavours
• The powder needs no refrigeration and FidoVet gives it a two-year shelf life, so it keeps in the cupboard until you want it
• Made in Italy. FidoVet says the formula took six years to develop, under the veterinarian Dr Giovanni Patruno, and holds international patent no. 102023000002232

How To Make It

• Add water to line 3 marked on the tub — roughly 80 ml
• Seal the lid firmly and shake for about 30 seconds, until the mix is completely smooth
• Stand it in the freezer for about three hours
• A 40 g tub makes about 110 g of finished gelato
• Once made up, use it within a day or two

Feeding

• FidoVet's daily guide is 60 g for a small dog, 120 g for a medium dog and 180 g for a large one
• That makes one 40 g tub roughly two servings for a small dog, one for a medium dog, and under a full serving for a large one
• Take the calories off the day's main meal rather than adding them to it
• Serve it soft rather than rock hard. Straight out of the freezer it is cold enough to be uncomfortable on a dog's teeth
• Always leave fresh, clean drinking water available

Composition

• Fructose, whey powder, skimmed milk, refined vegetable fats (palm and coconut), buttermilk, wheat flour, dextrose, corn starch, calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, yeast products (MOS), salt, magnesium oxide and monopotassium phosphate, plus freeze-dried pineapple powder at 0.5%, with turmeric powder
• Full composition is printed on the tub

Available in: Pineapple, Vanilla, Apple, Raspberry, Strawberry and Banana

Good To Know

• Fructose is the first ingredient and dextrose is in there too. This is a dessert — treat it as an occasional one rather than a daily habit, and think twice if your dog is overweight or diabetic
• Contains whey powder, skimmed milk and buttermilk. Plenty of adult dogs are lactose intolerant to some degree, so try a small amount first and stop if it causes loose stools
• Contains wheat flour, so it is not a grain-free treat
• Sweetened with fructose and dextrose rather than an artificial sweetener. That matters, because xylitol — which appears in some human desserts — is highly toxic to dogs. Never give a dog human ice cream as a substitute
• The freeze-dried fruit is 0.5% of the mix. It is there for flavour and aroma rather than as a meaningful source of nutrition