Wagg Puppy review

Wagg Puppy lands in our Good band, level with the typical bag of puppy kibble, and its pillars come back Good across the board. The reasons are consistent: most of the meat is unattributed, and the base is wheat and maize with maize protein propping up the declared protein. The starch share runs above what growth kibbles usually carry, and nothing at all is printed on calcium.

What the recipe does have is a named fat source, a named fish oil and a prebiotic given a real dose, and none of that is nothing. It sits inside a formulation written to a simple brief, and the label makes no secret of what that brief is.

Ingredients, as declared: 30% Meat Meal & Gravy*(with min 4% Chicken), Whole Grain Wheat, Maize, Vegetable Fibre, Maize Protein, 3% Chicken Fat* (source of Omega 6), Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil (source of Omega 3), Minerals & Vitamins, Chicory Root (1000 mg/kg as a source of FOS), Yucca (150 mg/kg). *33% Meat Ingredients with Chicken* equivalent per 100g kibble to: * min 40g hydrated animal ingredients with, * min 20% Chicken

The meat declaration is where most of the questions live. Meat meal and gravy at 30% names a minimum of 4% chicken inside it and leaves the balance to a category, with no animal attached. Meat meal itself is an ordinary dry dog food ingredient, a dried ground protein powder that has formed the backbone of kibble for decades. A species attached to it would tell you far more than the category does.

A second way of counting the same thing then follows: 33% meat ingredients with chicken. Per 100g of kibble that means 40g of hydrated animal ingredients at the least, with chicken at 20% or more. That is a lot of arithmetic for one claim, and the underlying point is that the meat share is respectable in volume while staying vague in species.

Whole grain wheat and maize form the base, with maize protein behind them. Wheat is the ingredient most often linked with dietary intolerance in dogs, which is why we flag it, and most pups are untroubled by it. Maize protein lifts the declared figure, though a plant protein does not bring what meat protein brings. Carbohydrate converts to 44.5% of dry matter against the 39.0% of the puppy dry field's middle.

The fats are named, which is a genuine plus on a label of this kind. Chicken fat at 3% is identified by species rather than left as animal fat, and salmon oil goes in as a source of omega 3. Beet pulp and vegetable fibre handle the fibre side, the latter usually being another way of writing beet pulp.

The supplement tail is short and dosed. Chicory root at 1000 mg per kilogram supplies prebiotic FOS and yucca comes in at 150 mg per kilogram. The vitamin and trace element panel is printed in full. Its selenium arrives as sodium selenite. Of the two permitted forms that is the one used more often, though selenised yeast is generally better absorbed.

The analysis prints protein, fat, fibre, ash and moisture, then stops. Calcium is absent, and on a growth food sold for every size of dog that is the gap you feel most. Energy at 333 kcal per 100g is our estimate, not a declared figure, and it runs under the 376 typical of a puppy kibble. Portions here will be a little larger than a richer bag would ask for.

Sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

How much a puppy eats changes month by month, so the growth chart on the bag is your reference point, not any single daily figure. The smallest pups take 75g a day on its own guide, and the largest on the chart 525g a day.