Millies Wolfheart Farmers Mix review

Our scoring lifts this into the Excellent band, clear of our Good band, which is where the typical adult dry food settles. Leading with 28% dried turkey is what does it. Dried meat keeps its protein through cooking where fresh meat cannot. With the largest entry on the list already dried, protein lands at 32.6% of dry matter and carbohydrate stays down at 38.6%. Every meat, fat and gravy on the list names its animal too, and that counts for as much.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Turkey (28%), Freshly Prepared Aberdeen Angus Beef (10%), Freshly Prepared Turkey (10%), Sweet Potato (10%), Potato, Tapioca, Turkey Fat (6%), Chickpeas, Freshly Prepared Pork (5%), Tomato Pomace, Pea Fibre, Turkey Gravy (1%), Minerals, 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

Dried turkey at 28% is the biggest single entry here, and that dried start is what gives the recipe its backbone. Fresh meat comes out of the oven a good deal lighter, the water gone. A dried leader therefore keeps far more of its protein through to the bowl than an equal weight of fresh meat would. Freshly prepared Aberdeen Angus beef and freshly prepared turkey then add 10% each.

Naming the beef down to the breed is a nice touch and an unusual one on a kibble label. Freshly prepared pork at 5% joins in as well. Pork is not a meat many dogs have tried, so plenty of them will be meeting it here for the first time. Turkey fat at 6% and turkey gravy at 1% carry the bird's name too, so there is no unnamed fat anywhere on the list.

The starch is sweet potato at 10%, potato, tapioca and chickpeas, with pea fibre behind them. No grain appears in the recipe. Tapioca is the plainest of that group, being starch with very little else attached, and it sits above the chickpeas rather than below. Carbohydrate still finishes at 38.6% of dry matter, well under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The joint pack is printed with its doses in the ingredients list, glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 177.5 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Behind it sits the botanical tail: tomato pomace, mixed herbs, dried apple, carrot and cranberry. Every one is at trace level, and none of them changes the substance of the recipe.

The trace minerals on the label carry figures: zinc and iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 12 mg and iodine at 0.96 mg per kilo. Calcium works out at 2.07% of dry matter, an easy level for an adult dog. A large breed puppy doing its growing on this bag is worth a vet's opinion first.

£5.17 a kilo, in 700g, 4kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 230 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which lands the day at £1.19. The label's own chart asks 175 to 240 grams for a dog of that weight, and the waistline settles the rest.