Taste of the Wild Adult: Wetlands review

High Prairie leads this range in our Excellent band, while the other five finish in our Good band, level with where the typical adult dry food ends up, Wetlands the strongest of them. What separates them is how much of the protein is animal and how much comes from beans and pulses.

Wetlands and High Prairie both convert to 35.6% protein of dry matter with carbohydrate at 30.2% and 30.9%, which is a genuinely meat dense reading for a kibble. Pine Forest leans on chickpeas, peas, lentils and pea flour and gives some of that ground back at 39.5% carbohydrate. Even so, every recipe in the range comes in under the 46.2% carbohydrate that is typical for adult dry food. That is the range's quiet achievement.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck (12.5%), duck meal (12.5%), chicken meal (12.5%), sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), egg products, sea fish meal, potato protein, fried quail (1%), roast duck (1%), smoked turkey (1%), tomato pulp, minerals, dried chicory roots, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract.

Each list opens with the headline animal from the front of the bag. The plain reading is that the meal sitting behind it does at least as much of the work. Bison is declared at 12% in High Prairie with lamb meal and chicken meal following, and duck at 12.5% in Wetlands is matched by duck meal at 12.5% and chicken meal at another 12.5%. A meal is dried and rendered, its water already gone. Spoon for spoon it carries far more protein than the same percentage of a fresh entry. None of that is a criticism, since it is simply how a meat dense kibble gets built. It does mean the unusual animal is the flavour and the talking point rather than the bulk of the bowl.

Pacific Stream is the one recipe here whose animal content is entirely fish. Salmon leads at 21%, sea fish meal follows, and salmon meal and smoked salmon at 4% fill in behind, with nothing from a land animal anywhere on the list. For an owner working out what upsets their dog, being able to read a list that short and that clean is worth a great deal.

The starch side changes recipe to recipe. High Prairie, Pacific Stream and Wetlands use sweet potato and potato, while Pine Forest and Southwest Canyon lean on chickpeas, peas and lentils, each declared at 10% in Pine Forest. Legumes bring protein of their own, and pea flour, pea protein and potato protein turn up in a few of these lists as well. All of that lifts the declared protein figure without lifting the meat content. Read the analysis with that in mind and the animal heavy recipes still come out ahead.

All six finish with the same short tail of tomato pulp, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, dried chicory roots and yucca schidigera extract. At trace level the berries are seasoning and little more. Chicory root earns its keep as a prebiotic fibre, and the yucca is there with the garden in mind.

The mineral panel is unusually thorough. Zinc, iron, copper and manganese are each declared twice, in an amino acid chelate form and again as a sulphate or oxide. Doubling up like that is a sensible belt and braces move, because a chelated mineral is generally absorbed more readily. Taurine is added at 0.1% across the range and vitamin E at 150 IU. Pine Forest and Sierra Mountain also carry DL-methionine at 2000 mg, an amino acid the pulse heavy recipes top up because plant protein tends to run short of it.

A full spread of birds, and the strongest of the five sharing our Good band. Duck at 12.5%, duck meal at 12.5% and chicken meal at 12.5% lead, then fried quail, roast duck and smoked turkey at 1% each. Protein converts to 35.6% of dry matter with carbohydrate at 30.2%, the lowest here, and its nutritional balance and transparency both read Excellent, with protein and processing and value at Good.

Per kilo, High Prairie is £5.08, Pacific Stream £5.12, Sierra Mountain £5.30, Wetlands £5.43, Southwest Canyon £5.88 and Pine Forest £6.16. Most of the range comes in 2kg and 12.2kg bags, with Wetlands sold in the 12.2kg size only.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 232 and 245 grams a day of these recipes, which puts a day's feeding at £1.18 on High Prairie and £1.48 on Pine Forest. Behind those figures sits around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The labels also print their own tables, and where the two disagree the dog's shape settles it.