Millies Wolfheart Countryside Mix review

This one reaches our Excellent band, a step above our Good band, where the typical adult dry food comes to rest. The meat is the whole reason. Fresh duck and fresh lamb open the list, and dried duck sits high enough at 15.5% to keep the protein up once the fresh meat has given back its water. Rabbit is in there as well, and that leaves protein at 33.2% of dry matter and carbohydrate at 34.8%. Everything is named too, right down to the species behind the fat and the gravy. Not every label bothers with that.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Duck (23%), Freshly prepared Lamb (20%) Sweet Potato (16%), Dried Duck (15.5%) Potato, Lucerne, Dried Lamb (3.5%), Dried Rabbit (3.5%), Duck Fat (3.5%), Lamb Gravy (1%), Minerals, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 177.5 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 177.5 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Mixed Herbs, Dried Apple, Burdock Root, Dried Camomile, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Dried Dandelion, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Seaweed, Dried Peppermint, Dried Spinach

Freshly prepared duck at 23% and freshly prepared lamb at 20% take the top two places, and dried duck at 15.5% sits third. That order is the making of the recipe. Fresh meat is largely water and most of it goes during cooking. The dried duck entry ends up bigger in the finished kibble than the list order suggests, and having it that high is what holds protein at 33.2% of dry matter.

Dried lamb and dried rabbit add 3.5% each. Rabbit is uncommon in dog food, so for most dogs it will be a new meat. It is highly digestible as well, and a small share of it still counts for something. Duck fat at 3.5% and lamb gravy at 1% name their animal as well, which keeps the whole list readable for anyone tracking a sensitivity.

Sweet potato at 16% leads the starch, potato follows and lucerne sits behind both. There is no grain and no tapioca in the recipe. Carbohydrate finishes at 34.8% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, a long way under the usual for a kibble.

The joint pack arrives with its figures attached on the ingredients list: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 177.5 mg/kg each, chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Behind it sits a long tail: mixed herbs, dried apple, burdock root, camomile, carrot, cranberry, dandelion, seaweed, peppermint and spinach. Every one of them is at trace level, and none is load bearing.

The figure to read carefully is calcium, at 2.83% of dry matter, with crude ash at 12.5%. Both point to plenty of meat and bone in the mix. That is fine for an adult dog, though your vet should hear about it before a large breed grows up on this. Every trace mineral is given a figure: zinc and iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 5 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.19 mg per kilo.

£5.18 a kilo, sold in 700g, 5kg and 14kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 238 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), giving a daily figure of £1.23. The bag's chart asks 175 to 265 grams for a dog that size. Where the chart and the waistline disagree, follow the waistline.