Millies Wolfheart Gundog Mix review

Our scoring settles Gundog Mix in the Good band, the same band the typical adult dry food reaches. The ingredients do not hold it back. The analysis does. Protein converts to 25.5% of dry matter, gentle for a grain-free food, and estimated carbohydrate lands at 46.2% of dry matter, exactly the typical adult dry food figure. Named meats with percentages beside them, printed joint doses and a fully dosed mineral panel are what carry it above the middle. Average is the reading for both protein and processing and nutritional balance. Transparency reads Outstanding, value Good.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Trout (22%), Sweet Potato (17%), Potato, Chickpeas, Dried Lamb (11%), Dried Fish (11%), Tapioca (8%), Lamb Fat (4%), Lamb Gravy (1.5%), Tomato Pomace, Salmon Oil, 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, Yucca Extract

The headline is freshly prepared trout at 22%. Read fresh carefully: much of that 22% is water, and out it goes in the oven. The two dried entries behind it, lamb at 11% and fish at 11%, are the concentrated ones actually delivering protein to the finished kibble. Added together the animal side gives protein at 25.5% of dry matter and fat at 14.1%, a gentle rather than a muscular reading.

Binding duty goes to sweet potato at 17% and potato, with chickpeas and tapioca at 8% behind them. Tapioca is a starch and very little else, so texture is what it earns its place on. Chickpeas do better, adding a little fibre and plant protein to their starch. Estimated carbohydrate finishes at 46.2% of dry matter, which is the middle of the dry shelf rather than the light end.

Naming the fat is more than many labels manage. Lamb fat at 4% supplies most of it. Salmon oil sits further down as the omega 3 source, so fish covers the coat side of the recipe. Ash converts to 10.9% of dry matter, a sign of decent bone content coming through in the dried meats.

Every bag carries the same joint pack, with glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane both at 177.5 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, and printing those numbers is what makes them worth anything to a reader. The trace list runs to zinc at 48 mg, iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg and iodine at 0.96 mg per kilo, each dosed in print.

The practical touch is yucca extract at the tail end, there because it tends to make what the dog leaves behind less pungent. Tomato pomace does the fibre work, and a trace level tail follows it: apple and burdock root, camomile and carrot, then cranberry, dandelion and peppermint, all seasoning. Dried seaweed brings a little natural iodine. None of it makes or breaks the recipe.

£4.92 a kilo, in three bag sizes: 700g, 4kg and 12kg.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition comes to roughly 234 grams a day at £1.15, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label is more generous, asking 175 to 265 grams for dogs from 15kg to 20kg, so begin at the lower end and adjust by eye.