Wildways Puppy Dry: Beef with Buffalo 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: COMPOSITIONFresh Beef (40%), Beef Protein (18%), Buffalo Protein (14%), Peas (9.5%), Poultry Fat (7%), Hydrolysed Poultry Liver (2%), Chickpeas (2%), Dried Apple Pulp (1.5%), Pumpkin (1.2%), Salmon Oil (1%), Eggs Shells (0.5%), Potassium Chloride (0.4%), Sodium Chloride (0.3%), Pea Flour, Glucosamine (0.022%), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.02%), Inulin (source of Fructo-oligosaccharides, 0.015%), Yucca Mojave (0.015%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.013%), Dried Milk Thistle (0.01%), Dried Rosemary (0.003%), Dried Curcuma Turmeric (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.

The beef and buffalo recipe spreads its meat across three entries: fresh beef at 40%, beef protein at 18% and buffalo protein at 14%, with hydrolysed poultry liver at 2% behind them. Peas drop to 9.5% and chickpeas to 2%, and small additions of potassium chloride at 0.4% and sodium chloride at 0.3% appear that the chicken recipe does without.

This is the fuller label of the two. Moisture is declared at 10.0%, so protein converts to 34.4% of dry matter, fat to 20.0% and carbohydrate to an estimated 34.8%, comfortably under the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. Calcium is printed and converts to 1.56% of dry matter, sitting inside the range growth asks for, which makes this the recipe of the two that an owner of a big pup can actually check. The hydrolysed poultry liver is the entry to note against an exclusion diet, since it names no bird. Glucosamine comes in at 0.022%, mannan oligosaccharides at 0.02%, inulin at 0.015% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.013%.

£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.