Wild Pet Food Omega+ 80/20 Complete review

This one finishes in our Outstanding band, two clear bands above the Good reading where the cold-pressed category has its middle. A single named fish at close to four fifths of the recipe is doing most of the lifting, supported by an analysis that reads far more like a meat meal than a starch one. Protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all come back Outstanding, and for a food that is essentially herring pressed into a pellet, that consistency is the point and no surprise.

Ingredients, as declared: *Animal Ingredients (All of UK origin) - 80% - All dehydrated before weighing*, Wild Caught Herring 79%, Whole Egg 1%, *Fruit/Veggie/Superfood Blend - 20% - All dehydrated before weighing*, Cold-Pressed Sunflower Oil 3%, Carrot 3%, Sweet Potato 3%, Kelp Seaweed 2.5%, Spinach 2.5%, Ground Chia Seeds 2%, Pumpkin 1%, Apple 1%, 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%)

Herring at 79% is a genuinely unusual thing to see on a dry-format label. Most fish foods lean on a meal made from mixed white fish trimmings; this one names a single oily species and states that it was wild caught. Oily fish is where the long chain omega 3 fats actually live. Building the recipe on the fish itself is the more honest route to them, with no oil topped up at the end.

Beyond the herring, whole egg at 1% is all the animal side holds. No liver and no plasma appear, so the vitamin and mineral work falls to the fish and the plant fifth. Cold-pressed sunflower oil at 3% sits alongside the herring, which reads oddly at first on an oily fish recipe. Sunflower oil brings vitamin E and the linoleic acid that fish oil is short of, so the two work together.

The plant fifth is spelled out to the last pinch. Carrot and sweet potato come in at 3%, kelp seaweed and spinach at 2.5% and ground chia seeds at 2%, with pumpkin, apple and blackcurrant at 1% each. Then a 1% herb and botanical blend, itemised at 0.1% apiece for black pepper, oregano, broccoli, ginger, algae omega 3 powder, turmeric, echinacea root, chicory root and green lipped mussel powder. A live bacterial culture closes the list at 0.0023%. Kelp is the iodine source and chicory root the prebiotic fibre.

The analysis follows the fish. Protein converts to 51.1% of dry matter and fat to 16.0%, while carbohydrate lands at just 17.0%, against 43.2% for the typical cold-pressed food. Ash is the highest figure Wild prints on a complete at 12.8% of dry matter, which is what a whole fish inclusion tends to do. The label stops short of declaring the calcium behind it.

Glucosamine at 1000mg and chondroitin at 500mg finish the recipe. Both are natural constituents of cartilage rather than novel compounds, and they are standard additions in foods pitched at older or larger dogs. The panel prints the doses without stating the quantity of food they apply to, so read them as declared figures.

£8.56 a kilo. It is bagged in 2.5kg, 6kg, 12kg and 18kg sizes, with a 40kg bulk option as well.

On the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs around 840 kcal daily, and 221 grams of this food covers it, at £1.89 a day.