Jack Wolf Working Dog: Beef review

The typical adult raw food carries our Outstanding band, and four of the five here earn it too, which tells you where the bar sits in this category. What Jack Wolf adds is consistency: the same 80% construction, the same named British animals and the same short plant list, five times over. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding on every recipe, transparency Outstanding on all but the Original, which reads Excellent, and value Outstanding on the four. The four sit so close together that the choice is one of richness and protein. The Turkey & Lamb sits in our Good band, its protein and processing reading Average where the others read Outstanding.

Ingredients, as declared: British Beef (Muscle, Tripe, Heart, Liver 5%, Kidney 5%) min 40%, British Chicken with bone 40%, Carrot, Apple, Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Kale, Salmon Oil.

The sum is the same on all five labels. Named British animal takes 80%, either as one species or two split down the middle, and the remaining fifth goes to carrot, apple, butternut squash, broccoli and kale. There is no cereal, no legume and no thickener, which is why carbohydrate converts to between 2.3% and 6.0% of dry matter, right around the 5.0% figure typical of raw food.

Organs are written into the percentages, not tucked behind a general word. The Beef itemises muscle, tripe, heart, liver at 5% and kidney at 5%. The Turkey & Lamb names lamb liver at 5% and lamb kidney at 5%, and the Original folds chicken liver and heart into its 40% lead. Offal is where much of an animal's vitamin and mineral load actually sits, so a named organ share does real work in a recipe with no premix behind it.

Fish turns up in every recipe, though not always the same way. Four of the five finish with salmon oil for omega 3 fats, while the Original skips the oil and puts British salmon at 10% and wild herring at 10% into the grind as whole fish. Most dogs will never think about it. It matters only where fish has to stay out of the bowl, and no recipe here manages that.

Bone is the calcium source, and the labels are honest about how much of it there is. Calcium converts to 1.25% of dry matter in the Original and 1.34% in the Beef, both of them lighter on bone. From there it climbs through the Chicken at 2.30% and the Duck at 3.26% to 4.57% in the Turkey & Lamb, where ash reaches 13.0% of dry matter. Firm stools follow the bone, so ease a dog from the lightest recipe to the heaviest over a few days, not overnight.

Energy is estimated rather than declared, and it varies more than the flavour names suggest. The Beef is 135 kcal per 100g and the Original 176 kcal, against a raw typical of 155 kcal. That matters at the bowl: the same dog eats noticeably more of the Beef than of the Original to reach the same day.

Two animals in equal measure, with British beef at a minimum of 40%, itemised as muscle, tripe, heart, liver at 5% and kidney at 5%, and British chicken with its bone taking the other 40%. No recipe of the five is lighter, at 135 kcal per 100g, and it is among the gentlest on bone, with calcium converting to 1.34% of dry matter.

Per kilo, the Beef is £4.56, the Chicken £4.70, the Original £5.00, the Duck £5.10 and the Turkey & Lamb £5.44. All five come in 500g portions, and the Beef and the Turkey & Lamb are also sold as 800g portions in boxes of 4kg, 12kg and 16kg.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, needing roughly 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. Feeding that dog lands between £2.38 and £2.85 a day across the range, and the difference is energy density, not the rate itself: the lighter Beef feeds in a larger portion than the dense Original.