Wildways Puppy Dry review

The two bags finish together. Both reach our Excellent band, a step above the typical puppy dry food, with the beef and buffalo recipe a shade in front.

Both read Good on protein and processing, with the beef bag Excellent on nutritional balance and the chicken bag Outstanding on transparency. The difference between them comes from the analysis and from what each label chooses to declare. The beef recipe states its moisture and its calcium, converts to a meatier protein figure and carries a lighter starch estimate, while the chicken recipe leaves both moisture and calcium off the pack. Neither is a weak recipe, and because the blueprint is shared, an owner choosing on protein preference alone is not giving up much either way.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (40%), Turkey Protein (30%), Peas (10%), Poultry Fat (6%), Chickpeas (4%), Pumpkin (3%), Chicken Liver (2%), Dried Apple Pulp (2%), Salmon Oil (1%), Eggs Shells (1%), Pea Flour, Glucosamine (0.026%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.018%), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.015%), Inulin (a source of Fructo-oligosaccharides, 0.01%), Yucca Mojave (0.01%), Dried Milk Thistle (0.01%), Dried Rosemary (0.003%), Dried Curcuma (0.003%)

The top of each list is built the same way. A fresh meat carries the flavour and the palatability, then a dried protein concentrate adds the dense, water free protein that fresh meat loses in the oven. It is a sensible pairing, and both bags print a percentage against each part.

The starch side is unusually restrained for a kibble. Peas and chickpeas do the binding on each recipe with pea flour behind them. There is no cereal on either list. Dried apple pulp and pumpkin bring a gentle fibre alongside, the sort most growing digestions take in their stride.

Egg shells appear on both lists, an old fashioned but perfectly sound way of supplying calcium in a form dogs use readily. The one entry that leaves its bird unnamed on both recipes is the poultry fat. That is fine for a dog with a preference and less so for one on a genuine exclusion trial.

Both bags write the functional tail out with percentages. Most labels do not go that far. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate cover the joints, mannan oligosaccharides and inulin cover the gut, and yucca mojave, dried milk thistle, rosemary and curcuma follow at trace level as seasoning rather than substance.

Both packs print their added vitamin levels instead of leaving them implied, and both carry taurine, choline chloride and biotin in the panel. The variety notes below hold the analysis, the calcium picture and the exact supplement levels, which is where these two recipes genuinely part company.

Fresh chicken at 40% opens the chicken and turkey recipe, with turkey protein at 30% behind it and chicken liver at 2% adding organ meat further down. Peas at 10%, chickpeas at 4% and pumpkin at 3% carry the plant side. Dried apple pulp at 2% adds fibre, and salmon oil at 1% supplies the marine omegas.

The panel gives protein 29.0%, fat 17.0%, fibre 3.2% and ash 6.5%, with energy at 385 kcal per 100g. Moisture is not declared on this bag, so the dry matter conversions run on our standard 8% assumption. That puts protein at 31.5% and carbohydrate at an estimated 39.4%, effectively level with the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. No calcium figure is printed, so there is nothing here to check against when a pup is going to finish big. The joint and gut entries are precise: glucosamine at 0.026%, chondroitin sulphate at 0.018%, mannan oligosaccharides at 0.015% and inulin at 0.01%.

£4.58 a kilo on the 12kg bag and £7.00 a kilo on the 2kg.

A growing pup's ration does not hold still for long. It rises through the fastest weeks and settles as the adult frame arrives. The chart on the bag is a guide; weigh it against the pup in front of you, since last month's scoop will already be out of date.