Sneyd's Wonderdog Wonderdog Active Light review

Our scoring lands this one in our Poor band, under the Good band that the average adult dry food holds. Almost all of that gap comes down to what the label leaves unsaid, and not to anything it admits to. Cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin, oils and fats: every one of those is an umbrella term, so protein and processing and transparency both read Poor. Protein converts to 22.8% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 58.7%, so nutritional balance reads Poor as well. What that does not mean is that a dog will fail to thrive on it. A broad term can cover very good material as easily as very ordinary material, and the honest position is that we cannot see enough of this recipe to say which.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, meat and animal derivatives (Chicken, Lamb, Beef & Pork), derivatives of vegetable origin, oils and fats, minerals.

Cereals heads the list, and that one word can mean wheat, maize, rice, barley or oats, in whatever mix the mill happens to be running. Some makers use the broad term to protect a recipe they have spent years refining, others use it because the grain moves with supply. Either way, a dog with a known cereal problem cannot be matched to this bag with any confidence.

The meat entry is more helpful than it first looks. Meat and animal derivatives is a wide legal category. Here the label goes on to name the animals behind it as chicken, lamb, beef and pork, more than many foods using the same phrase will tell you. What is missing is the weight of each and the parts used, so how much of the bowl is muscle meat and how much is the rest of the carcass stays out of view.

Derivatives of vegetable origin and oils and fats are the other two umbrella terms. The vegetable line can cover anything from good pulses to processed by-product, and the fat line gives no clue to its origin. Neither is a red flag on its own and both are ordinary at this end of the shelf, but together they leave a good deal of the recipe unread.

The analysis is where the food's purpose shows. Fat at 7.0% is properly low for a dry food and protein converts to 22.8% of dry matter. Energy works out at an estimated 322 kcal per 100g against the 357 typical for adult dry food. That combination is exactly what a lighter recipe should look like, and it is the whole reason this bag exists.

Every added vitamin and trace element carries a number: iron at 80mg, zinc at 40mg, manganese at 25mg, copper at 13mg, iodine at 1.4mg and selenium at 0.15mg per kilo. The mineral side is fully declared even where the ingredients are not. Calcium is not declared, which only matters if you were thinking of a growing dog, and this is an adult recipe in any case.

Sold in a 15kg sack and a 2.5kg bag, with a sample pack for trying it first.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would work through about 261 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 175 to 240 grams for a dog between 11kg and 20kg, which is the leaner side of that estimate, exactly as you would expect from a lighter recipe.