Millies Wolfheart Ultima Mix review

Our scoring settles Ultima Mix in the Good band, comfortably above the middle of the adult dry shelf, which lands in the same band. The meat total and the fat level do the lifting. The brake on it is what sits inside that meat total. Pork fat at 10% and salmon gravy at 2% are both counted in the 60% block, and potato at 23% is one large plant entry. Protein converts to 31.0% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 38.6%, still well below the 46.2% the typical adult dry food carries.

Ingredients, as declared: 60% Fish, Pork, Beef (Dried Salmon (12%), Dried Pork (12%), Pork Fat (10%), Freshly Prepared Beef (8%), Freshly Prepared Salmon (7%), Freshly Prepared Pork (7%), Salmon (2%), Salmon Gravy (2%)), Potato (23%), Tapioca, Chickpeas, Pea Fibre, Minerals, Tomato Pomace, 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, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Seaweed, Dried Peppermint

The label opens with a bracketed 60% block covering fish, pork and beef, and the contents repay more attention than the headline. The two largest entries inside it are dried salmon and dried pork at 12% each. Those are also the most useful. Dried meat has its water already gone and takes more protein into the finished kibble. Freshly prepared beef at 8%, freshly prepared salmon and pork at 7% each, salmon at 2% and salmon gravy at 2% make up the rest, with pork fat at 10% counted in the same block.

Pork is the interesting one. It turns up in relatively few British dog foods, so a great many dogs have never eaten it, and a protein a dog has never met is a protein they cannot yet have reacted to. The salmon carries marine omega 3s for skin and coat, and the beef puts a familiar red meat beside it.

Nothing on the plant side is grain. Potato leads it at 23%, and tapioca, chickpeas and pea fibre come after. Tapioca contributes starch and very little else, so its job is holding the kibble together. Tomato pomace, the material left once tomatoes have been pressed, adds a little fibre.

Fat at 19.5% as fed, or 21.2% on a dry matter basis, is what sets this recipe apart. It is why energy reaches 408 kcal per 100g against 357 for the typical adult dry food. For a dog in hard work that is precisely the point. For a dog with a quieter routine it simply means a smaller scoop.

The joint pack is declared to the milligram, with glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 177.5 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Zinc and iron are dosed at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg and iodine at 0.96 mg per kilo, though no copper figure appears on this label. At 1.09% of dry matter, the calcium suits a growing large breed as comfortably as it suits an adult. Herbs and dried fruits close the list at trace level.

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

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs only about 206 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.11 a day. The richer the recipe, the less of it ends up in the bowl.