Wolf Of Wilderness Explore: Endless Terrain Mobility review

Our scoring puts these three side by side in the Good band, and the typical adult dry food is a near neighbour on that same rung. You can see what holds the ceiling down on the label itself, with nothing buried in the maths. Poultry protein heads each recipe, with no bird named, and lignocellulose stands in for part of the fibre in two of the three. The pillars read Good for protein and processing, Good for nutritional balance and Excellent for transparency, with value Good across all three. The analysis itself is sound without being startling. Protein converts to 31.5% of dry matter in every recipe and carbohydrate to between 35.0% and 41.4%, all of it under the 46.2% typical for the category. Judged as tools for a particular job rather than as all-rounders, they do the work they were built for.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry protein (27.5%), fresh chicken meat (25%), potato flakes, peas, poultry fat (3%), apple pomace, dried beet pulp, lignocellulose, linseed, salmon oil (0.7%), brewer's yeast, sodium chloride, dried wild berries (total 0.3 %: cranberries, blackcurrants, elderberries, raspberries), yeast cell walls (0.2%, equivalent to 0.04% beta-glucans and 0.035% mannan oligosaccharides), sunflower oil, dried algae [a source of DHA], chicory inulin (0.1%), glucosamine from animal tissue (0.06%), chondroitin sulphate (0.03%), 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).

The ordering here is unusual and quietly honest. Poultry protein comes first at between 27.5% and 28.3%, with fresh chicken at 25% behind it, where most brands would put the fresh meat on top for the look of the thing. The oven is why that ordering makes sense: fresh meat arrives wet and comes out light, so the dried entry is genuinely the bigger contributor to the finished kibble. This label puts it where it belongs. Protein converts to 31.5% of dry matter in all three recipes.

The limitation is the naming. The fresh meat is chicken and says so. The dried protein and the fat are both poultry, a family term taking in chicken, duck, goose and turkey. A recipe can move between them. Most dogs will not notice at all. For an owner trying to rule out one particular bird, the label stops short.

Each recipe then earns its name. Endless Terrain adds glucosamine at 0.06% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.03%, both printed with doses, and dried algae as a DHA source. Mighty Summit pushes poultry fat to 9% and lands at 420 kcal per 100g with taurine at 1000 mg and L-carnitine at 100 mg for a dog doing real work. Vast Forests goes the other way, cutting fat to 12.0% of dry matter and lifting fibre to 7.1% with lignocellulose at 5.3% and psyllium seeds and husks, then doubling the L-carnitine to 200 mg.

Potato flakes and peas carry the starch in all three, with apple pomace and dried beet pulp adding fibre alongside. The shared tail is the brand's usual signature. Wild berries come in at 0.3%, yeast cell walls at 0.2% supply the beta-glucans and mannan-oligosaccharides, and chicory inulin at 0.1% sits beside seven wild herbs at 0.03% each. Pleasant and characterful, but not what the food stands on.

One entry on Vast Forests will stop a careful reader, so here it is plainly. Dried grapes and dried hops both appear at the very end of its ingredients, behind items declared at 0.03%, so the amounts involved are tiny. Grapes are on every owner's list of things to keep off the floor, and hops belong there too. At these levels it is a botanical inclusion, nothing like a portion of fruit. If it sits badly with you, put the question to the maker.

The trace minerals are declared as sulphates with a chelated zinc at 60 mg alongside, the chelate being the form a gut generally absorbs more readily, and selenium comes as sodium selenite at 0.35 mg. Vitamin C is trebled to 300 mg on Endless Terrain against the 100 mg the other two carry, which fits a recipe aimed at joints.

The mobility recipe, with glucosamine at 0.06% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.03% printed with their doses, plus dried algae as a DHA source and vitamin C lifted to 300 mg. Fibre runs at 5.4% of dry matter and energy sits in the middle of the three at 356 kcal per 100g. A stiffening dog gets the joint ingredients without a rich bowl to go with them.

All three recipes are £4.23 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 200 grams a day of Mighty Summit, 236 grams of Endless Terrain and 252 grams of Vast Forests. That comes to £0.85, £1.00 and £1.07 in turn, each assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The denser the recipe, the smaller the daily scoop, which is why three bags at the same rate per kilo do not land at the same rate per day.