We put Wilsons new fresh meals to the test
Tester:
Dog: Obi, standard Poodle X German Shepherd
Owner: Phil
Fun fact: Phil and Obi have been resident testers before and tried out the Wilsons cold pressed recipes
The product:
Wilsons Pet Food has unveiled a brand-new range of freshly prepared meals for dogs. Gently steamed to preserve nutrients and natural flavour, the natural meals are perfect for owners who want to feed fresh food without the hassle of preparation, cooking, or freezing. They contain everything your dog needs for a balanced and nutritious meal.
First of all, the taste test. Did Obi enjoy the food?
We fed him the food as a meal on its own as we wanted to ensure it was a fair test – and he licked the bowl clean. He loved every flavour, too. While he isn’t the fussiest dog, he has been known to leave some kibble in his bowl at times so it’s a good endorsement from him. He ate each meal in one sitting and, while he didn’t have a favourite flavour, he was genuinely eager to dig into each recipe.
What did you make of the quality of what you were serving?
Obi and I had previously tested the Wilsons cold pressed recipes so we already knew the fresh meals would be good-quality nutrition. When I checked out the ingredients list, it made for good reading. There are high levels of meat content in the foods, around 60% of the food is meat. Even better, it’s not meat or animal derivatives. The meat line-up also included organs such as heart and liver meat, which I think makes it even better for canine health. Then the rest of the ingredients list included foods you’d recognise as having health benefits, such as seaweed, spinach, chia seeds, ginger, and turmeric. I’m definitely no expert in dog food labelling, but the recipes looked like a line-up of the foods and supplements humans should be eating to be healthy! So, all in all I felt happy I was feeding a wholesome food.
How easy was it to serve?
I thought it might smell a bit, but it was not unpleasant to serve up.
As Obi is a big lad, he needed a whole packet, plus most of a second pack for dinner. With many pouch-style foods you can often squeeze all the food out, with the Wilsons fresh meals, on occasion, some may prefer to use an implement of some kind too - for instance when we were getting the food out of the second packet, for accurate measuring.
I did need my glasses to read some of the text on the back of the pack, when trying to work out how much Obi needed, but the packaging looks very nice.
Once sorted, we just popped the open packet in the fridge inside a sealed food bag, or you could simply fold the pack over and clip it. That was really easy, and, of course, the whole process is far easier than making any fresh meals yourself!
Verdict
For owners wanting to precisely measure the amount of food they are feeding, (which we do) there is a little effort involved, but there is a clear feeding guide on pack.
The best thing is that as an owner you know you are feeding a really good quality meal and Obi clearly enjoyed it. That’s the top priority for me.
Find out more about Wilsons Pet Food