Wolf Of Wilderness Dry Adult: Blue River review

All eight reach our Good band, where the middle of the adult dry category also sits. The spread is narrow because the recipes barely differ. Protein converts to between 27.2% and 29.3% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to between 43.1% and 46.5%, either side of the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. What separates the higher from the lower is small stuff, mainly how much of the dried protein carries a species name and how the fat and ash happen to fall. None of the gaps is wide enough to steer a healthy dog away from the animal it prefers. Worth adding that none of these labels prints a moisture figure, so the dry matter conversions here assume the 8% a kibble usually holds.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken meat (25%), potato flakes, chicken protein (16.9%), pea protein, poultry fat, salmon protein (4%), dried beet pulp, linseed, apple pomace (2.1%), sodium chloride, dried wild berries (total 0.3%: cranberries, blackcurrants, elderberries, raspberries), mono-calcium phosphate, yeast cell walls (0.2%, source of beta-glucans and mannan-oligosaccharides), salmon oil, chicory inulin (0.1%), sunflower oil, dried wild herbs (0.03% yarrow, 0.03% dandelion herb, 0.03% dandelion root, 0.03% camomile, 0.03% nettle, 0.03% plantain leaves, 0.03% St John's wort).

Read past the names and the family resemblance is unmistakable. Seven of the eight open with fresh chicken meat at 25%, then potato flakes, then a dried protein concentrate somewhere between 12.5% and 18.9%, then peas or pea protein and poultry fat. The wild animal on the front, whether that is venison, boar, duck, turkey, lamb, herring or salmon, comes in at 4%. That 4% is a flavour and a talking point. The recipe underneath it is what does the work, and knowing that makes the whole range much easier to shop.

The eighth recipe, Blue River Free-Range Chicken & Salmon, is the one that breaks the pattern. Fresh chicken jumps to 41%, dried salmon protein sits at 10%, and dried egg and calcium carbonate appear where the others put peas and potato starch. It reads as the flagship, and the analysis agrees, with the highest protein of the eight and fat at the top of the range.

Being grain free here means potato flakes doing the starch work, with potato starch, peas and pea protein behind them depending on the recipe. Dried beet pulp gives the gut something to work with, and lignocellulose appears in a few of them as an insoluble fibre.

The gut and coat extras are consistent and sensibly chosen. Yeast cell walls at 0.2% bring beta-glucans and mannan-oligosaccharides, food for the gut flora further down. Chicory inulin does much the same job in most of the recipes, and linseed alongside salmon oil covers both the plant and the marine omega 3s. The wild berries at 0.3% are romance, and so are the seven herbs at 0.03% each. There is no harm in that, as long as you know which part of the label is which.

Two things to keep straight. Poultry fat and poultry protein name a family and stop there, so several of these recipes leave the bird open. Salmon oil is on all eight labels, so no version of this food is fish free. Neither point will trouble most dogs, and both matter a great deal to a dog being taken carefully through an exclusion diet.

One quirk of the labels themselves: several print two sets of nutritional additives, an original recipe and a newer one, so the exact vitamin and mineral figures depend on which bag turns up. The forms are the familiar sulphates with a glycine-chelated zinc alongside them, and every entry is given a figure.

Salmon protein at 4% is the named animal, and the dried backup is chicken protein at 16.9% rather than unnamed poultry, so apart from the fat every bird on this list has a name. Pea protein sits behind it and estimated carbohydrate converts to 46.1% of dry matter.

Per kilo, the turkey recipe is £3.77, Blue River and Wild Hills are £3.79, Deep Seas, Green Fields, Oak Woods and Sunny Glade are £4.02, and the free-range chicken and salmon is £5.00.

As a guide, and assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 216 and 231 grams a day. That runs between £0.83 and £1.08 a day depending on the recipe.