Fruitables Pumpkin SuperBlend Digestive Supplement for Dogs & Cats - 425g

The Fruitables Pumpkin SuperBlend Digestive Supplement for Dogs & Cats is a canned pumpkin puree for dogs and cats - a wet fibre supplement with ginger, spinach and added B vitamins, stirred into the food rather than fed on its own.

Key Features

• A 425g (15 oz) can, not a powder - this is a wet puree you spoon in
• Ingredients: pumpkin, apple pomace, spinach, tomato pomace, choline chloride, ginger, calcium carbonate, cinnamon, and vitamins B5, B6, B9 and B12
• 4.25 calories a tablespoon, 17 calories a quarter cup, 119 calories in the whole can
• Guaranteed analysis: crude protein 1% min, crude fat 0.5% max, crude fibre 3% max, moisture 89.1% max
• Gluten free, and described by Fruitables as vet developed
• Suits dogs and cats both
• Made in the USA

How To Use It

• Fruitables' instruction is simple: it works with whatever you already feed, and you replace up to 10% of the meal by volume with it
• Stir it through rather than putting it on top, or a fussy animal will eat around it
• Start with less than you think. Fibre works best introduced over a few days, and a sudden jump can loosen things further before it helps
• At 279 kcal/kg this is very low in calories, so it does not add much to the day even at the full rate

What Pumpkin Fibre Actually Does

• Pumpkin is mostly soluble fibre and water. Soluble fibre absorbs water in the gut, which is why the same ingredient is used for both loose stool and for constipation - it adds body to one and softness to the other
• The ginger and cinnamon are in there as traditional settling herbs. Fruitables include them deliberately; the evidence in pets is thin, so treat them as a nice-to-have
• The B vitamins and choline are a small nutritional top-up rather than the point of the product
• It is 89% moisture, so part of what it does is simply get more water into a dog or cat that does not drink much

Where It Helps And Where It Does Not

• It is reasonable for mild, short-lived digestive wobbles - a day of soft stool after a diet change, or a pet that strains a little
• It is a useful way to add fruit and vegetable fibre to a raw or home prepared diet, which is how Fruitables themselves pitch it
• It is not a treatment. It will not fix a parasite, an infection, a pancreatitis flare, an obstruction or a food allergy, and using it to wait out a real problem costs time
• Loose stool that lasts more than a day or two, or comes with blood, vomiting, lethargy or a refusal to eat, needs a vet rather than a supplement

Once You Open It

• Cover the can and refrigerate the rest, and use it within about a week
• Decant into a sealed container rather than leaving it in the opened can
• Portion the leftovers into an ice cube tray and freeze if you will not get through it - a cube is roughly a serving for a small dog

Who Makes It

• Fruitables is a Manna Pro Products brand, run out of St Louis, Missouri
• This can is labelled made in the USA, and marked patent pending
• Older Fruitables stock and some online listings still credit Vetscience, the company that built the brand before Manna Pro took it on

Good To Know

• Currently in stock
• This is a complementary food, labelled by Fruitables for intermittent or supplemental feeding only. It is not a meal and not balanced to feed alone
• Safe for cats as a fibre supplement, but cats are obligate carnivores - keep it to the stated 10% and do not let it displace meat
• Plain canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie filling are not the same thing. If you ever substitute, check there is no added sugar, xylitol or spice blend
• Introduce it gradually. A sudden change, or too much at once, upsets a stomach more often than the product itself does
• Make sure fresh water is available at all times
• If your pet is on a prescription gastrointestinal diet, check with the vet before adding fibre to it