The Hunger Of The Wolf Adult Grain Free: Venison and Sweet Potatoes review

The two bags finish closer together than their very different ingredient lists would suggest. The salmon sits high in our Good band on the strength of a single dried fish meal at the front. Its carbohydrate load stays under the norm for a dry food, and the small print is doing real work, not sitting there for decoration.

The venison follows it into our Good band. Its 15% venison meal is matched by 15% dehydrated pork, so the animal named on the front supplies only part of what is in the bowl. That is where the whole distance between the two comes from. A typical adult dry food also ends its run in our Good band, so this is a perfectly ordinary place to land, and the recipe itself is put together the same careful way. If it is the venison specifically you are after, read the list before the label.

Ingredients, as declared: Venison meal (15 %), sweet potato (15 %), dehydrated pork (15%), potato (15%), pea, poultry fat, hydrolysed animal protein, beet pulp, apple, flax seed, prebiotics, green tea extract, rosemary extract, betaglucans, vitamins & additives.

Salmon meal at 26% is the entry that makes the first recipe. The water is driven out of a fish meal before it reaches the mixer, so it goes in close to its finished weight. That is why 26% of a meal does considerably more for the protein in the bowl than 26% of a fresh fish would. Protein lands at 25.0%, or 27.2% of dry matter, and carbohydrate estimates to 41.9% of dry matter against 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The grain free base is potato flakes and sweet potato with peas behind them, and pea protein follows. Pea protein is worth spotting when you read a protein figure. It is a plant concentrate, and a plant's protein is generally a less complete one for a dog. A little of it topping up a fish led recipe is fine, though a lot of it would change what the headline means.

The small print on the salmon reads well. FOS is a prebiotic, and the bacteria doing good work lower down the gut live on it. Yucca extract goes in for the traditional reason, softening what the garden gets. Linseed and salmon oil bring the omega 3s from two directions, and green tea, cranberries and marigold add antioxidants. Marigold is there specifically as a lutein source for the eyes. Vitamin C is dosed at 600 mg and vitamin E at 530 mg per kilo, both generous.

The venison recipe is built to the same shape but with the weight spread differently. Four entries share the same 15% declaration: venison meal, dehydrated pork, sweet potato and potato. Behind them come pea, poultry fat, hydrolysed animal protein, beet pulp, apple and flax seed. Protein comes out higher at 27.0%, or 29.3% of dry matter, and carbohydrate lower at 41.2%, so on the analysis alone it reads well. It is on the ingredient list that the venison headline needs qualifying, since pork is doing just as much of the work and the hydrolysed protein names nothing.

Ash sits high in both, at 10.3% and 9.9% of dry matter, which is what happens when meals rather than fresh meat lead a recipe: meals carry more bone and therefore more mineral. It is not a fault, it just tells you where the protein came from. Calcium follows the same pattern, at 1.63% of dry matter in the salmon and 1.3% in the venison, the latter comfortable for a large breed dog.

Poultry fat appears in both, and it is the entry that stops either recipe being a genuine single animal diet. It is a perfectly good fat source and most dogs will never notice it, but if the reason you are here is to keep a dog away from chicken, this is the line that matters.

Venison meal is declared at 15%, and dehydrated pork, sweet potato and potato each match it. Treat this as a venison and pork recipe, not a venison one. Protein reads 27.0%, or 29.3% of dry matter, the higher of the pair. Apple and rosemary extract sit in the small print, and calcium at 1.3% of dry matter suits a large breed. The ingredient statement finishes on a catch-all for its vitamins and additives rather than itemising them.

£3.07 a kilo for both recipes.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 240 grams a day of the salmon and about 237 grams of the venison. That assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), and it works out at £0.74 and £0.73 a day. For a dog of that weight taking under an hour of exercise, the venison label asks 212 to 263 grams. Between those two figures, go with what the waistline tells you.