Wild Pet Food Digest 80/20 Cold-Pressed: Blue Whiting review

All three recipes reach our Outstanding band, two clear bands above the Good band where the middle of the cold-pressed field settles. The size and clarity of the animal fraction is doing most of that work, helped by named organ meats and a carbohydrate estimate nowhere near the category norm. All four pillars come back Outstanding on every recipe. The three finish so close that your dog's preference is the sensible way to choose.

Ingredients, as declared: *Animal Ingredients - 80% - All dehydrated before weighing*, Wild Caught Blue Whiting 46%, Insect Protein 25%, Plasma 5%, Whole Egg 1%, *Fruit/Veggie/Superfood Blend - 20% - All dehydrated before weighing*, Cold-Pressed Sunflower Oil 3%, Carrot 3%, Sweet Potato 3%, Kelp Seaweed 3%, Spinach 3%, Ground Chia Seeds 2.5%, Pumpkin 1.5%, Apple 1.5%, Blackcurrant 1%, Herb, Botanicals & Superfood Blend 1% (Oregano 0.1%, Chicory Root 0.1%, Ginger 0.1%, Turmeric 0.1%, Black Pepper 0.1%, Echinacea Root 0.1%, Algae Omega 3 Powder 0.1%, Broccoli 0.1%, Green Lipped Mussel Powder 0.1%, Natural Probiotic (Gut Friendly Bacteria - Bacillus Velezensis) 0.0023%)

Before any single ingredient, look at how this food is built. Wild splits each recipe into an animal block of 80% and a plant block of 20%, weighs both after dehydrating, and prints a percentage against nearly every entry. Cold pressing then keeps the temperature far below what conventional kibble is cooked at. The pellets crumble in water and do not swell, and that is what gives the format its following among owners of fast eaters.

Insect protein at 25% is the entry most people will stop on. The protein in it is complete, it needs far less land and water than a livestock animal does, and dogs take to it far more readily than their owners expect. It also means the animal fraction is never one species. That matters if you reached for a named meat in order to keep everything else out.

Plasma at 5% is the other unusual entry. It is the protein-rich fraction of blood, dried to a powder, and it is prized for palatability and for the immune proteins it carries over. The beef and the chicken then add liver at 3%, and whole egg at 1% closes the animal side of all three. Between them they cover a lot of the micronutrition that would otherwise need a synthetic premix.

The plant fifth is itemised, with nothing blended out of sight. Carrot, sweet potato, kelp seaweed and spinach sit at 3% each, ground chia seeds at 2.5%, pumpkin and apple at 1.5% and blackcurrant at 1%. A 1% herb and botanical blend closes it, 0.1% apiece for turmeric, ginger, black pepper, broccoli, oregano, green lipped mussel powder, chicory root, algae omega 3 powder and echinacea root. The live bacterial culture at the tail is declared to four decimal places, 0.0023%, which tells you how precise the rest of the list is trying to be.

The analysis follows the label. Protein converts to 51.6% of dry matter on the beef and chicken recipes and 50.5% on the blue whiting, while carbohydrate lands between 17.6% and 19.2%, against 43.2% for the typical cold-pressed food. Glucosamine at 1000mg and chondroitin at 500mg are declared for joints, though the panel prints the doses without saying what quantity of food they sit in, so take them as stated rather than calculated.

Wild caught blue whiting at 46% is the largest single animal entry Wild prints on any Digest label. There is no liver in this one, and cold-pressed sunflower oil at 3% stands in for the animal fat. Protein converts to 50.5% of dry matter, and at 19.2% the carbohydrate estimate tops the three.

£7.78 a kilo for all three recipes. Bags come in 2.5kg, 6kg, 12kg, 18kg and a 36kg option.

Roughly 840 kcal a day is what a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs, on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). On these recipes that means 223 to 226 grams, or £1.73 to £1.76 a day.