Wolf Of Wilderness Soft Adult Mini: Silvery Lakes review

This one sits in our Good band, with transparency the strongest of its four pillars at Excellent. The other three pillars all read Good, so no single strength is propping up a weakness. Semi-moist has no crowd of its own to be measured against, so the reading rests entirely on the label. A named, well declared chicken lead and a fully itemised additive panel pull upwards, while the potato meal, the beet pulp and the unnamed poultry entries behind the headline keep it from climbing further. For a small dog that eats it happily, this is a sound everyday choice.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh free-range chicken* (41%), potato meal, poultry protein [dried] (13%), duck protein [dried] (10%), dried beet pulp, protein hydrolysate [from poultry], linseed, fish oil, poultry fat, egg [dried], wild berries [dried] (0.3: cranberries, blueberries, elderberries), herbs [dried] (0.2% nettle, blackberry leaves, common yarrow, fennel, caraway, camomile, mistletoe leaves, gentian root, centaury), yeast extract (0.15% mannan oligosaccharides, 0.05% beta-glucans), sunflower oil, safflower oil, chicory [dried, source of inulin], *Chicken from premium animal husbandry - with more space, straw and access to open-air grounds with predominantly vegetated areas

Semi-moist is the middle ground between a can and a bag. Moisture is declared at 18%, enough to keep every piece pliable, and yet the food still lives in a cupboard and portions with a scoop. That combination is the entire point of the format, whether the dog has a small jaw or teeth that have seen a few years.

The headline is fresh free range chicken at 41%, and an asterisk on the label sets out what free range means here: more space, straw, and access to outdoor ground that is mostly planted. Behind it sit dried poultry protein at 13% and dried duck protein at 10%. Both have had the water taken out of them, so they give more protein per gram than the fresh entry does. Dried poultry protein is a category term, though, and it never commits to a particular bird.

The analysis lands where a soft food should. Protein converts to 32.9% of dry matter and fat to 18.3%, with the estimated carbohydrate at 37.9%, most of it coming from the potato meal and the beet pulp. Beet pulp is a fermentable fibre and it earns its place in stool quality. A recipe carrying that and a potato base too is never going to read as low starch.

The fat is spread across several sources rather than poured from one drum: poultry fat for palatability, fish oil for the long chain omega 3s, and sunflower and safflower oils for linoleic acid. Linseed sits with them, adding plant omega 3 and a little soluble fibre of its own.

The last third of the label is the interesting part. Dried wild berries at 0.3% bring in cranberry and blueberry, plus elderberry. The herb blend at 0.2% runs to nine plants, from nettle through fennel to camomile. The yeast extract is split out honestly into 0.15% mannan oligosaccharides and 0.05% beta glucans, both of them food for gut bacteria and not for the dog directly. Chicory closes it as a source of inulin. Every one of those entries is tiny, but each is named and measured, and the vitamin and mineral panel behind them is dosed line by line.

Calcium works out at 1.71% of dry matter, which reads high next to a lean adult recipe but sits comfortably for a dog whose growing is long behind them. Zinc comes in twice, once as an oxide and once as an amino acid chelate. The chelated form is the one usually picked, because it absorbs more readily.

£7.50 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 240 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly £1.80 a day. A small dog, which is who this bag is written for, will get through a good deal less than that.