Wolf Of Wilderness Junior Free-Range Pack review

Puppy wet food is the strongest corner of our data, and the typical example there reaches our Excellent band. An Outstanding placing puts this pack at the head of that field rather than in the middle of it. Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, with protein and processing Excellent behind them. The recipes earn it: 46% lead meat in both tins, a named husbandry standard, a calcium figure in print and almost no starch.

Ingredients, as declared: Junior Wild Hills - Duck & Veal: 46% free-range veal* (meat, heart, lung, liver), 28.55% broth, 20% free-range duck* (meat, carcass, heart, neck, liver), 4% wild berries (currants, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), 1% minerals, 0.2% safflower oil, 0.15% wild herbs (nettle, common yarrow, thyme), 0.05% knotted kelp, 0.05% roots (dandelion) Junior Blue River Chicken & Salmon: 46% free-range chicken* (meat, carcass, heart, neck, liver), 28.45% broth*, 20% salmon, 4% wild berries (currants, blueberries, blackberries,raspberries), 0.55% minerals, 0.45% brewers' yeast, 0.25% wild herbs (nettle, common yarrow, thyme), 0.2% salmon oil, 0.05% knotted kelp, 0.05% roots (dandelion) *Certified animal-friendly premium husbandry system

Junior Wild Hills leads on free-range veal at 46%, taken as meat, heart, lung and liver, with free-range duck at 20% behind it as meat, carcass, heart, neck and liver. Organ meat at that share is nearer a whole carcass than muscle meat on its own. Liver in particular is about as nutrient-dense as anything you can put in a puppy's bowl.

Junior Blue River swaps in free-range chicken at 46%, again as meat, carcass, heart, neck and liver, with salmon at 20% alongside it. That pairing brings marine omega 3 in from the fish itself as well as from salmon oil at 0.2%, which is useful while a puppy's brain and coat are still being built.

Broth does the rest of the volume, 28.55% in Wild Hills and 28.45% in Blue River, and there is no cereal, potato or pea anywhere in either list. It shows in the analysis: carbohydrate converts to an estimated 2.6% of dry matter where the typical puppy wet food runs at 13.6%. That is about as close to a straight meat diet as a tinned food gets.

Wild berries at 4%, listed as currants, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, are the plant matter, joined by knotted kelp and dandelion root at 0.05% each and wild herbs at up to 0.25%. Kelp is a natural iodine source; the rest sit at seasoning level. Safflower oil at 0.2% in Wild Hills and brewers' yeast at 0.45% in Blue River are the small housekeeping differences between the two recipes.

Calcium works out at 1.38% of dry matter, a figure a growing skeleton wants. An owner raising a pup towards a big adult frame has that in print to plan around. Minerals sit at 1% in Wild Hills and 0.55% in Blue River, and the added panel prints vitamins A and D3 with copper, manganese, zinc and selenium.

The analysis reads well: protein at 12.2% as fed converts to 52.6% of dry matter and fat at 7.7% to 33.2%, a genuinely meaty profile for a wet food. The one place to keep your wits about you is energy, because the two recipes are not equivalent, at 115 kcal per 100g for Wild Hills against 131 for Blue River. Swapping tin for tin changes the calories going into the bowl even when the weight stays the same.

A puppy's ration keeps moving as they grow. Work out the adult weight you expect your pup to reach and take the starting amount from the maker's chart for it. Allow for the gap in energy between the two recipes, then adjust to the shape your pup is holding.