Millies Wolfheart Alert Mix review

The Good band is where our scoring leaves this one, level with the middle of the adult dry shelf. The reasons are mechanical rather than alarming. That 40% headline covers the fat and the gravy along with the meat. The freshly prepared pork inside it is mostly water, and cooking takes that away, so protein finishes at 23.9% of dry matter while the two potatoes carry a fair share of the rest. Fed to an adult dog that gets on with pork and duck, it is still a clean, short recipe with a full vitamin and mineral panel and joint support written out in figures.

Ingredients, as declared: 40% Pork & Duck (Freshly Prepared Pork (13%), Dried Duck (10%), Pork Fat (8%), Dried Pork (8%), Pork Gravy (1%)), Sweet Potato (25%), Potato, Peas, Lucerne, Minerals, Dried Seaweed, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Tomato Pomace, Glucosamine 175 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 175 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg

The label does something genuinely helpful at the top: it prints the 40% pork and duck block and then itemises what is inside it. Freshly prepared pork leads at 13%, dried duck follows at 10%, dried pork adds 8% and pork gravy 1%, with pork fat at 8% counted in the same bracket. Read properly, that means the fat and the gravy are part of the 40%. Since cooking drives off much of the fresh pork's weight as water, it is the dried entries that supply most of the protein reaching the bowl.

Pork and duck are good news where the usual meats have caused trouble. Most dogs will never have met pork, since it is rare in dog food, and duck is easy to digest and reliably popular in the bowl. No fish appears at any point on the list, which is unusual for a grain free kibble and useful if you are keeping your dog off it.

Sweet potato at 25% comes first among the plants, followed by potato, peas and lucerne, with no grain at all. Whole peas bring starch, plus fibre and a scattering of minerals. The plants are pulling their weight here, with carbohydrate at 48.5% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Joint support is written into the ingredients list itself with numbers attached: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 175 mg/kg each, chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Dried seaweed, dried carrot, dried cranberry and tomato pomace make up the short tail behind it, all sitting at trace level.

The added trace minerals each carry a dose, with zinc and iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 15 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.29 mg per kilo. Calcium works out at 1.74% of dry matter, a comfortable level for an adult dog. A large breed puppy growing up on this bag is a question for your vet.

£4.17 a kilo, in 700g and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 236 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £0.98 a day. The label asks 175 to 265 grams for a dog of that weight, so let your dog's waistline break the tie.