Wilsons

Wilsons Premium Cold Pressed: Venison & Trout review

Name: Wilsons Premium Cold Pressed: Venison & Trout
Brand: Wilsons

71.7/100Excellent

Cold pressedPuppyAdult

Flavour

Seven cold-pressed recipes with labels more forthcoming than most, printing a percentage or a dose against nearly everything that matters. Four sit in our Good band, and the Chicken, Turkey and Duck and Venison and Trout go a step up to Excellent. The animal share is moderate and the starch is not small.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Owners who want doses printed: methionine, glucosamine, chondroitin and carnitine all have figures
Dogs that bolt their food. The pellet softens in water and does not expand
A change from poultry to red meat to fish on the same underlying recipe
Trace minerals in chelated form, spelled out on the panel
Every size of dog, with feeding guidance from 1kg lapdogs to 60kg giants

Worth watching

Plenty of carbohydrate in all seven, as you would expect of a pressed pellet
Oats in the Haggis and rice in the Lamb, with rice protein at 7% in both
Green-lipped mussel in the Venison and Trout and the White Fish

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

71.7/100Excellent

Protein and processingExcellent

Nutritional balanceAverage

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueExcellent

The details

Dog fit

Listed for puppies, adults and seniors of every size. Only the Turkey and Duck prints a calcium figure, so that is the check for a large-breed puppy.

Food type

Cold pressed

Life stage

Puppy, Adult, Senior

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Venison

The score, in context

Chicken 73.7
Turkey 73.7
Venison 71.7
Lamb 68.1
Haggis 67.8
Salmon 67.1
White Fish 57.5

Seven recipes across Excellent and Good. Typical dry food: Good.

Strong labelling holds the range up, and a moderate animal share with plenty of starch keeps it from climbing further.

What's in it

Dried ground venison, dried ground trout17% eachA land and water pairing, the furthest from everyday meats in the range.
Sweet potato, peas, tapioca17% each
Salmon hydrolysate5%A third species.
Salmon oil, rapeseed oil2%, 1.5%
Beet pulp, kale, pea fibre, seaweed2% down to 0.5%
Inactivated yeast postbiotic0.4%4 g/kg, the gut side of the tail.
Green-lipped mussels0.25%A shellfish.
Glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate, carnitine400, 300, 50 mg/kgJoint pair and fat metabolism, every dose printed.
Chicory, inulin, MOS, yucca, herbs, cranberry, turmeric, ginger, lutein500 mg/kg and below

The range's chelated zinc, iron, manganese and copper, with iodine and vitamins A, D3 and E.

Green-lipped mussel is on the label, which matters on a shellfish-free plan.

No calcium figure on the label. It is listed for puppies, so ask Wilsons before a large-breed puppy grows on it.

Named ingredients

Dried ground venison (17%), dried ground trout (17%), sweet potato (17%), peas (17%), tapioca (17%), salmon hydrolysate (5%), salmon oil (2%), rapeseed oil (1.5%), beet pulp (2%), kale (1%), pea fibre (0.7%), seaweed (0.5%), postbiotic - inactivated yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae (4 g/kg) (0.4%), green-lipped mussels (0.25%), vitamins and minerals (1.2%), chicory, inulin, DL-methionine (650 mg/kg), prebiotic - mannan-oligosaccharides (500 mg/kg), postbiotic yeast (500 mg/kg), glucosamine (400 mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate (300 mg/kg), yucca schidigera, natural antioxidants (tocopherol extracts and rosemary extract), cranberry, L-tryptophan (150 mg/kg), carnitine (50 mg/kg), dandelion root, marigold yellow, lutein, ginger, turmeric, thyme.

Against the range

Meat: Venison and trout, 17% each; Poultry, lamb or fish elsewhere.
Ash, dry matter: 10.9%; The highest in the range; the Lamb is 9.2%.
Carbohydrate, dry matter: 43.4%; The lowest; up to 46.7% in the Chicken.

The pick for a change away from the everyday meats, unless shellfish is a problem.

Every recipe is cold pressed: a dried ground meat leads, a hydrolysate of the same animal follows at 4% to 6%. A starch base of sweet potato with peas, tapioca, rice, oats or potato carries the pellet. The analyses barely move, with protein at 27.2% to 28.3% and fat at 15.2% to 15.5% of dry matter.

The functional tail is shared. A yeast postbiotic at 4 g/kg, MOS at 500 mg/kg, glucosamine at 400 mg/kg, chondroitin at 300 mg/kg and carnitine at 50 mg/kg appear on every label. Only the Turkey and Duck declares its moisture; the other six are worked from an assumed 8%.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

368 kcal/100g

Protein

25%

Fat

14%

Fibre

Ash

10%

Dry weight

Protein

27.2%

Fat

15.2%

Fibre

3.3%

Ash

10.9%

Carbs

43.4%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

39.3%

Carbs

53.7%

Veg

1.7%

Oils

3.5%

Other

1.9%

Pricing & size