Cold-pressed dog food is designed to retain more nutrients than traditional cooking methods. But how did it fare with our resident testers?
Meet the testers
Dog: Obi, standard Poodle X German Shepherd
Owner: Phil
Fun fact: Our canine tester is named after Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi!
What were your first impressions of the food?
I’ve never fed cold-pressed dog food before. In fact, I’d not even heard of it until I was asked to test the Wilsons recipes. That made the packaging important as I wanted to find out more about what the food was all about. Firstly, the packaging looks really nice! And the quality of information was equally as good. The packs explained the premise behind the cold-pressed methodology and highlighted the potential benefits. That set the tone as we knew what improvements we were looking for by giving Obi cold-pressed food.
The guidelines on the packs said to feed the cold-pressed recipes separately to his existing food and gradually increase the amount of Wilsons food over a period of nine days. The main ingredients, and their health benefits, were clearly highlighted on the pack, too. It was a good start that gave me confidence to try the food.
How well did the food go down?
The texture of the food is different to his usual kibble and I was slightly concerned to see if the pellets would be as appealing. I needn’t have worried as Obi lapped up the food and really seemed to enjoy it. There was no hesitation from him to getting stuck into the bowl.
We had a whole host of flavours to try and we found that Obi had his favourites. He would eat them all, but he seemed more excited about certain flavours. He particularly enjoyed the lamb and the venison and trout flavours. I would recommend trying all the flavours and picking two or three to serve to your dog on a regular basis. That way, your dog gets a nice variety and you know which ones will be well received.
What were your thoughts on the recipes?
I was impressed. Each recipe contained ingredients that you’d associate with health benefits, such as sweet potato, ginger, turmeric, kale, and salmon oil. In fact, looking in more detail at the ingredients list, there was also glucosamine and chondroitin, which is known to be good for joints, and the vitamins included were also listed. There also seemed to be a good level of protein. Most of the recipes are grain free and this was clearly indicated on the packs.
I can see why health-conscious owners are turning to cold-pressed food. While we’ve only been feeding the Wilsons recipes for quite a short time, I think there have been signs of firmer poos and less gas! These were two of the benefits listed on the packs, and without getting carried away, I’d say the early signs of the potential health benefits are really encouraging.
In terms of the effort involved as an owner, it’s just as easy as pouring kibble into the bowl. There’s no extra effort required as an owner at all.
Verdict
I’d definitely recommend owners take a look at Wilsons cold-pressed food. My dog was happy with it and I would like to try it for longer to see if the health benefits become more obvious.
The thing I liked the best, apart from the fact that it’s clearly high-quality nutrition, was the range of flavours. There were recipes I’d never seen before (including haggis!) and it was really great to think I’d given Obi variety and that he would enjoy eating different flavours. On a longer-term basis, if you regularly fed a small selection of the flavours, you could also add in a novel one from time to time, too.
Find out more…
To learn more about Wilsons cold-pressed dog food, visit wilsonspetfood.co.uk