Millies Wolfheart Highland Mix review

Highland Mix reaches our Good band, and it gets there on meat. Fresh duck at 29%, dried duck at 14% and wild boar at 15% add up to a genuinely animal-heavy label, and that puts it level with the typical adult dry food. The plant side is what stops it climbing further: estimated carbohydrate sits at 47.9% of dry matter, and nutritional balance settles on Average rather than better. For the dog this was designed around, a steady eater who does not need a rich bowl, that reads as balance rather than shortfall.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Duck (29%), Sweet Potato (28%), Freshly Prepared Wild Boar (15%), Dried Duck (14%), Chickpeas, Tapioca, Duck Stock (2%), Minerals, Tomato Pomace, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 177.5 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 177.5 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Yucca Extract, Mixed Herbs, Dried Apple, Burdock Root, Dried Camomile, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Dried Dandelion, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Seaweed, Dried Peppermint

Freshly prepared duck at 29% is the headline. Fresh meat brings plenty of water in with it, so the dried duck at 14% does the heavy protein work in the finished kibble. Wild boar at 15% comes in fresh alongside it. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter, respectable for a food this light on fat, and duck stock at 2% is there to make the whole thing smell worth eating.

Fat is the number that sets this recipe apart. At 8.5% as declared, or 9.2% of dry matter, it is well down on most grain-free kibble. The reason is simple: no fat or oil has been added at all, so what is there comes from the duck and the boar. That makes it a sensible everyday bowl for a dog whose weight creeps up, and a light one for a dog burning energy all day.

Sweet potato at 28% is a large helping of one plant. It brings slower-releasing starch with some fibre and a good deal of beta carotene. That is better company than a plain filler, though at that share it does push estimated carbohydrate to 47.9% of dry matter. Chickpeas and tapioca follow. Tapioca is starch and very little else.

Wild boar is the ingredient most owners will not have seen before. It is a lean red meat, closer to game than to farmed pork. Hardly any foods use it, so a dog with years of reacting to the everyday meats has probably never met it. Paired with duck, that gives the recipe a short and genuinely unusual animal list.

Joint support arrives with its arithmetic on show: 177.5 mg/kg each of glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane, plus 125 mg/kg of chondroitin sulphate. The mineral panel is fully dosed too. Zinc sits at 48 mg, 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. The selenium is sodium selenite, the common inorganic form. Yucca extract and tomato pomace round things off with the botanical tail of apple, camomile, carrot, cranberry, dandelion and peppermint, all at trace level.

£5.67 a kilo, with bags at 700g, 4kg and 12kg.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 251 grams a day here, which comes to £1.43, on an estimate of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance figure). Because the kibble is lighter in energy than most, portions run a little larger than you may be used to, which is worth remembering when you scoop.