Millies Wolfheart Gamekeepers Mix review

Gamekeepers Mix lands in our Excellent band, a step above the Good band that the middle of the adult dry shelf occupies. The lift comes from construction rather than flourish. Dried salmon leads at 20%, meat that has already given up its water before it reaches the mixer, and estimated carbohydrate runs at 38.1% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Three of the four pillars read Good with transparency Outstanding on top, so no single strength is propping the rest up.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Salmon (20%), Potato (11%), Sweet Potato, Freshly Prepared Salmon (10.5%), Tapioca, Freshly Prepared Goat (9%), Dried Rabbit (8%), Salmon Oil (5.5%), Chickpeas, Freshly Prepared Trout (5%), Tomato Pomace, Salmon Gravy (1.5%), 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

Putting dried salmon first at 20% means more than a fresh meat heading would. Freshly prepared meat goes into the mixer mostly as water and leaves the oven much lighter, so a dried entry at the top is the one genuinely carrying protein into the finished kibble. Fresh salmon at 10.5%, goat at 9%, dried rabbit at 8% and trout at 5% stack up behind it, and the analysis agrees: protein converts to 31.5% of dry matter and fat to 16.8%.

Potato at 11% and sweet potato do most of the binding, with tapioca and chickpeas behind them. Texture is what tapioca is for, since it is nearly pure starch with little else attached. Chickpeas at least carry fibre and some plant protein alongside theirs. No wheat, maize or rice appears anywhere on the list.

Goat and rabbit are the interesting names here. Neither turns up often in British dog food, which is exactly what makes them useful, because a dog cannot react to an animal it has never eaten. At 8% in its dried form, rabbit pulls its weight here. It is lean and easy to digest.

The joint pack comes with its doses printed: glucosamine and MSM at 177.5 mg/kg apiece, with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg behind them. The trace minerals are the traditional sulphate forms, and every one carries a figure. Zinc sits at 48 mg, iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 12 mg and iodine at 0.96 mg per kilo.

Tomato pomace handles the fibre, and the long tail of apple, carrot, cranberry, burdock root, camomile, dandelion and peppermint is seasoning at trace level rather than substance. Dried seaweed is the one back there with a job worth naming, as a natural iodine source. None of it changes the character of the food, because the salmon, goat and rabbit at the top have already done that.

£5.42 a kilo, sold in 700g, 4kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 226 grams a day, or £1.22, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Weigh the first few days out. The bag's own chart puts a 10kg to 15kg dog on 150 to 175 grams, and the waistline decides the rest.