Wild Pet Food Gentle Cold-Pressed: Chicken + Insect Protein review

The middle of the cold-pressed field sits in our Good band, and all three recipes finish there. These stay among the general run of the category and do not lead it. Named meats, percentages against nearly every entry and a cereal-free base are what hold the position. What keeps them from climbing is the potato-led starch share and a mineral line the label never breaks down. There is barely anything between the three, so let the animal make the choice.

Ingredients, as declared: *Animal Ingredients - All dehydrated before weighing*, Free Run Chicken 25%, Insect Protein 15%, Plasma 5%, Chicken Oil 4%, Chicken Liver 3%, *Fruit/Veggie/Superfood Blend - All dehydrated before weighing*, Potato 20%, Sweet Potato 6%, Peas 4%, Apple 4%, Carrot 4%, Linseed 3%, Beet Pulp 3%, Minerals 2%, Brewer's Yeast 1%, Seaweed 1%

Unlike Wild's completes, the Gentle recipes print no headline percentage for the animal block, only the individual entries within it. The animal side is dehydrated before weighing, as the plant side is, so the figures on the list are comparable with each other even though the total is left for you to add up.

Insect protein at 15% and plasma at 5% appear in all three. Insect protein is a complete protein farmed at a fraction of the environmental load of livestock, and plasma is the protein-rich fraction of dried blood, valued for palatability. Liver at 3% joins them in the beef and chicken recipes, bringing the vitamin A and B group vitamins that organ meats carry naturally.

The plant half is where this line parts company with the 80/20 recipes. Potato leads at 20%, sweet potato follows at 6%, then peas, apple and carrot at 4% each, linseed and beet pulp at 3%, brewer's yeast and seaweed at 1%. Linseed is the omega 3 source, beet pulp the gentle fermentable fibre, brewer's yeast a natural bank of B vitamins, and seaweed the iodine. It is a considered list, but potato at a fifth of the recipe is doing plenty of the physical work of holding a pellet together.

Minerals arrive as a flat 2% entry with nothing itemised behind it, which sits a little awkwardly beside the maker's own line about no fillers, no artificial preservatives and no synthetic additives. It is not a red flag, since almost every complete food adds minerals, but this is the one place on an otherwise detailed label where you are asked to take the recipe on trust.

The analysis reads accordingly. Protein converts to between 33.0% and 34.4% of dry matter and fat to between 10.6% and 12.8%. Carbohydrate lands at 37.6% to 43.1%, at or just under the 43.2% typical for cold-pressed food. This is a moderate, even-tempered set of numbers rather than a dramatic one, and for a lot of dogs that is exactly the point.

Free run chicken at 25% is the smallest headline meat figure in the line, backed by chicken oil at 4% and chicken liver at 3%. Fat is the lowest in the line here at 10.6% on a dry matter basis, and carbohydrate the highest at 43.1%. That makes it the gentlest of the set for a dog that gains weight easily.

£7.78 a kilo across all three recipes. Bags run 2.5kg, 6kg, 12kg, 18kg and 36kg.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate): that comes to 228 to 233 grams here, or £1.78 to £1.81 daily.