Millies Wolfheart Pork & Veg review

Pork & Veg settles in our Good band, the same place most adult dry food finishes. Named pork entries with percentages beside them, a fully printed mineral panel and dosed joint support all count for it, and transparency reads Outstanding, with protein and processing at Average. Nutritional balance reads Poor, held there by protein at 22.8% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate at 47.9%. No analysis can show the reason most owners go looking for this bag: a bowl built on an animal their dog has never met.

The band also carries something a score cannot: this is a food whose whole argument is a short list, and short lists are what a sensitive dog needs.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Pork (29%), Potato (15%), Sweet Potato, Dried Pork (14%), Chickpeas, Tapioca, Pork Fat (6%), Lucerne, Minerals, Pork Gravy (1%), Tomato Pomace, Joint Pack (Glucosamine 177.5 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 177.5 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Turmeric, Yucca Extract, Mixed Herbs, Dried Apple, Burdock Root, Dried Camomile, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Seaweed, Dried Peppermint

Pork arrives in both useful forms. Freshly prepared pork at 29% is wet going in, and a good deal of it leaves again in the oven. Dried pork at 14% arrives concentrated and does the dependable protein work. Pork fat at 6% and pork gravy at 1% complete the animal side. In the analysis that comes out as protein at 22.8% of dry matter with fat at 15.2%.

British dog food rarely uses pork, and that is exactly why this recipe exists. It is easy to digest and milder than lamb or beef. So few kibbles use it that a dog reacting its way through the everyday meats has probably never been given it. Nothing else with a face gets in either, so the short list holds all the way to the bottom of the label.

Starch here means potato at 15%, then sweet potato with chickpeas and tapioca, and that takes estimated carbohydrate to 47.9% of dry matter. Lucerne and tomato pomace do the fibre work between them, giving 4.3% of dry matter. Of the two, lucerne is the one to note, because it brings minerals and plant protein along with the bulk.

Turmeric is the entry owners tend to ask about. It sits down among the botanicals with no dose against it, so read it as a small part of the recipe's character. Yucca extract nearby is the practical one, generally included with the back garden in mind.

Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane are both listed at 177.5 mg/kg with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, doses you can check rather than take on trust. The mineral panel is printed in full as well. Zinc comes 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. Seasoning at trace level closes it: apple and burdock root, camomile, carrot, cranberry and dandelion, peppermint and seaweed.

£5.08 a kilo, with two bag sizes, 700g and 12kg.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 234 grams a day, or £1.19, on an estimate of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). For a 10kg to 15kg dog the label's chart runs from 150 to 175 grams. Condition decides where your dog falls between the two.