Wagg Active Goodness: Rich In Chicken & Veg review

Our scoring puts both varieties in the Average band, one step under the middle of the adult dry shelf, which earns a Good reading. The reasons are structural rather than dramatic. Cereal does most of the work. The beef recipe converts protein to 22.0% of dry matter and the chicken to 24.2%, and the animal content is given as a process, not a species. The label does print its figures, and a dog that gets on with simple food still has a complete, fortified everyday kibble here with an ingredient panel you can actually follow.

Ingredients, as declared: 26%, Meat Meal & Gravy* (with min 5% Chicken*) Whole Grain Wheat, Whole Grain Barley, Vegetable Fibre, Maize, 2% Chicken Fat (source of Omega 6), Whole Linseeds (source of omega 3), 2.3% Dried Green Peas & Beet Pulp*, Minerals & Vitamins, Chicory Root (1000 mg/kg), Yucca (150 mg/kg). 28% Meat Ingredients, with Chicken and Veg*equivalent per 100g to: *min 40g hydrated animal ingredients with min 20% Chicken, *min 10g Vegetables from dried peas and beet

Meat meal and gravy at 26% is the engine of both recipes. Meat meal is rendered and dried animal protein, the powder that has held the dry food industry up for decades. Concentrated protein is what it brings, and there is nothing poor about it. The catch here is naming. The label guarantees a minimum of 5% beef or chicken inside that 26%, and the footnote works the total up to 28% meat ingredients. Past that point the meat has no animal named to it.

Whole grain wheat and whole grain barley follow, with maize behind them. Of the cereals, wheat is the one named most often where a dog proves grain sensitive, and barley carries gluten too, so a dog avoiding one usually avoids both. For the many dogs that handle cereal without a flicker, both are digestible once cooked and bring fibre and micronutrients along with them.

Vegetable fibre is the label's word for what is almost always beet pulp, and dried green peas and beet pulp then appear together at 2.3%. That is the vegetable content in full, so read the beef and veg or chicken and veg naming as a description of the flavour rather than a large helping of greens.

The fats are named properly, which is not always true at this level. Chicken fat at 2% supplies omega 6 and whole linseeds bring the plant form of omega 3. A dog is slower to convert that form than the marine one, so give a coat time to answer. Chicory root at 1000 mg/kg is a prebiotic and yucca at 150 mg/kg is the usual choice for keeping stools less pungent.

The vitamin and mineral additions are dosed in print, with zinc at 50 mg, iron and manganese at 30 mg each, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 0.5 mg per kilogram. Selenium arrives as sodium selenite at 0.1 mg. Of the two forms permitted here that is the commoner, and where a label offers selenised yeast instead, that is the better absorbed.

Rich In Chicken & Veg names chicken in both of those same places. At 24.2% of dry matter it is the higher protein bag of the pair, with estimated carbohydrate at 53.9%. Everything else, from the cereals to the mineral doses, matches the beef recipe exactly.

Sold in 1kg, 2kg, 5kg and 12kg bags in both varieties.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through roughly 265 grams a day of either recipe, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 185 to 310 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so the waistline settles the difference.