My Pet Says Wilderness 80: Salmon, Herring, Haddock & Trout review

All three recipes sit in our Excellent band, while the typical adult dry food lands in our Good band. All three clear that typical mark with room to spare, so let your dog's history with fish and fowl pick between them rather than the small gap between the recipes.

Ingredients, as declared: 80% Fish: Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon (40%), Dried Salmon (19%), Dried Herring (9%), Freshly Prepared Haddock (5%), Freshly Prepared Trout (5%), Salmon Stock (2%) 18% Vegetable Medley: Sweet Potato (9.5%), Tapioca, Beet Pulp, Lentils, Chickpeas, Dried Carrot, Dried Spinach, Dried Pumpkin. Minerals, Additional Extras, Fruits, Herbs & Botanical Mix: Linseed, Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 260 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 260 mg/kg), Joint Pack (Glucosamine 178 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 178 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Apple, Dried Seaweed, Dried Marigold, Dried Cranberry, Mixed Herbs (Thyme, Majoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage), Dried Camomile, Burdock Root, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Peppermint, Green Tea Extract, Dried Dandelion, Dried Bilberry, Ginseng. Vitamins: Vitamin A 12,865 IU, Vitamin D3 865 IU, Vitamin E 96 IU, Trace Elements: Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate & Zinc Chelate of Amino Acids Hydrate) 77 mg, Iron (Iron (II) Sulphate Monohydrate & Iron (II) Chelate of Protein Hydrolysates) 48 mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate) 18 mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous & Potassium Iodide) 4.16 mg; Amino Acids: Methionine 1,106 mg, Provitamins: L-Carnitine 48 mg

The 80% headline is itemised on the label. Each recipe names its animals and prints a percentage beside every fresh and dried entry, down to the 2% stock that closes the meat section. Every list opens with fresh meat. Water is most of that weight, and it bakes off. That leaves the dried entries behind it doing more of the real work in the bowl than their spot on the list lets on. The analysis backs the label: protein converts to 41.3% of dry matter on all three recipes, and carbohydrate lands between 26.6% and 29.9%, where the typical adult dry food runs at 46.2%.

The 18% vegetable medley repeats across the range: sweet potato out front, tapioca, beet pulp, lentils and chickpeas doing the binding, and dried carrot, spinach and pumpkin bringing up the rear. Cereal is absent from all three labels, and the starch never leans on white potato.

The extras all carry a dose. Glucosamine and MSM arrive at 178 mg/kg apiece, with chondroitin at 125 mg/kg and the prebiotic pair of MOS and FOS at 260 mg/kg each. L-carnitine at 48 mg closes the panel. It has a hand in getting energy out of fat. Printed doses are what separate a working supplement from a garnish, and this label prints all of them.

Blending four species per recipe is the range's personality and its one honest limit. A mixed bowl keeps fussy eaters interested and lets richer and leaner meats balance each other, but a label carrying several animals cannot help you pin down which one disagrees with your dog. If that detective work matters in your house, the all-fish recipe is the closest this range comes to a short suspect list.

The long tail of herbs and botanicals, burdock root, green tea extract and ginseng among them, is decoration on the label. Entries that far down a list weigh next to nothing, and this food does not need them anyway; the meat fraction makes its case unaided.

Scottish salmon at 40% fresh and 19% dried heads an all-fish cast of herring, haddock and trout, which suits a dog whose feeding plan keeps land meats off the menu. At 406 kcal per 100g it also packs the most energy of the three.

Every recipe is £6.52 a kilo, sold as a 10kg bag with 13.5kg and 27kg Working Dog sacks above it.

As a guide, feeding works out at £1.35 to £1.43 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is roughly 207 to 220 grams a day depending on the recipe.