Wolf Of Wilderness Soft Senior review

Our Good band is where this one lands, with an Outstanding reading on transparency, a Good one on value, and Average on both protein and processing and nutritional balance. With no semi-moist crowd to measure it against, the label speaks for itself: a named fresh chicken lead, a dosed joint pair, added taurine and a fully itemised mineral panel. What it says is mixed, though, because the quantity of dried potato, beet pulp and cellulose in the bowl and the unnamed poultry entries behind the headline pull the other way. A senior food is asked to do a particular job rather than to top a table, and this one is clearly built with that job in mind.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken meat (38%), sweet potato [dried] (19%), potato [dried], poultry protein [dried] (11.5%), beet pulp [dried & desugared], peas [dried], fish oil, protein hydrolysate [from poultry], collagen hydrolysate (1.3%), chicken liver [fresh], cellulose powder, monocalcium phosphate, yeast extract (0.15% mannan oligosaccharides, 0.09% beta-glucans), wild berries [dried] (0.3%: lingonberries, blueberries, elderberries), herbs [dried] (0.2%: nettle leaves, blackberry leaves, common yarrow, fennel, caraway, chamomile, mistletoe leaves, gentian root, centaury), chicory [dried source of inulin], glucosamine (0.1%), chondroitin sulphate (0.1%), safflower oil, sunflower oil.

Softness matters more with age than at any other point in a dog's life. Moisture is declared at 18%. That keeps every piece pliable for a mouth that may have lost a tooth or two, and the bag still lives in the cupboard, with no fridge needed and a scoop to portion it.

The analysis has been dialled down deliberately. Protein converts to 29.3% of dry matter and fat to 12.8%, a gentler pair of figures than a working age food would carry, while fibre rises to 4.9% and the estimated carbohydrate to 44.6%. Energy lands at 313.6 kcal per 100g. That is the shape of a food written for a dog burning less than it used to, and it is a sensible shape for the job.

The fibre arrives from two directions at once. Gut bacteria can put dried and desugared beet pulp to work, since it is a fermentable fibre. Cellulose powder is the opposite, an inert bulking fibre that adds volume and nothing else. Together they are what let an older dog feel full on fewer calories, which is the usual reason a senior label reads like this one.

Joint and heart support both come with a dose. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate each sit at 0.1% in the main list, and collagen hydrolysate at 1.3% adds the protein fragments that cartilage is built from. Taurine at 200mg is on the added panel, an amino acid usually left to the meat but a reasonable thing to top up in an older dog. Vitamin E is dosed at 400mg, a generous antioxidant level to go with it.

The rest of the label reads like the range it belongs to. Fresh chicken liver is there for palatability and micronutrients, with monocalcium phosphate steadying the mineral side. Dried berries come at 0.3% and a nine plant herb blend at 0.2%, yeast extract gives 0.15% mannan oligosaccharides with beta glucans beside them, and chicory is the inulin source. Calcium works out at 1.04% of dry matter, comfortably placed for a dog long past growing.

£4.71 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition eats about 268 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at roughly £1.26 a day. A dog who has slowed down will usually need less than that.