Millies Wolfheart Duck & Veg review

Our scoring places this in the Good band, sharing that band with the typical adult dry food. Keeping to one animal takes nothing away from the analysis: protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter and fat to 13.0%, both comfortable for an adult dog. Every meat entry names its species, because there is only one species to name. What holds it below the meatier recipes is the starch, with potato at 21% second on the list and carbohydrate estimated at 49.0% of dry matter.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Duck (24%), Potato (21%), Sweet Potato, Dried Duck (19.5%), Duck Fat (5%), Tapioca, Chickpeas, Pea Fibre, Duck Stock (1.5%), Minerals, Tomato Pomace, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 177.5 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 177.5 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Mixed Herbs, Dried Apple, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Seaweed, Burdock Root, Dried Camomile, Dried Dandelion, Dried Peppermint

Duck is behind every animal ingredient on this label. Freshly prepared duck leads at 24%, dried duck follows at 19.5%, duck fat adds 5% and duck stock 1.5%. There is no unnamed fat, no hydrolysed anything and no fish oil hiding further down to complicate matters. That is what a single protein recipe should look like, and it is rare in a kibble.

The split between fresh and dried is the part worth understanding. Fresh duck carries a lot of water and loses it to the oven. The 19.5% dried entry therefore carries more of the finished protein than the 24% headline does. Between them, protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter and fat to 13.0%.

The binding comes from potato at 21% and sweet potato, with tapioca, chickpeas and pea fibre behind them and no grain at all. Tapioca is the plainest thing on the list, being starch with very little attached to it, while the chickpeas and pea fibre bring rather more. Carbohydrate is estimated at 49.0% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The joint supplements come with their figures printed on the ingredients list: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 177.5 mg/kg each, chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. The herbs and dried fruits that follow, from apple and burdock root through to peppermint, all sit at trace level.

Doses are printed for every trace mineral: zinc and iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 14 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.29 mg per kilo. Calcium reads 2.17% of dry matter, an easy level for an adult dog. Ask your vet about it first if a large breed puppy will be growing on this food.

Sold in 700g, 4kg and 12kg bags, at £5.00 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 237 grams a day, which comes to £1.19. That works off around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own range for a dog of that weight is 175 to 265 grams. Trust the waistline where the two disagree.