Let's take a look at Wainwrights Puppy Food, which is an affordable food choice in the UK. I am writing this post with my dog nutritionist hat on so I will try to cover all the major aspects.
Dry Wainwrights Puppy Food
Rating: stars stars stars
Top 5 Label Ingredients: Salmon 36%, Rice 26%, Whole Grain Barley 9%, Maize protein, Rapeseed oil
Type: Dry Food, Hypoallergenic
Made For: All puppies from small to large breeds
Age Range: From 8 weeks to 18 months.
This puppy food comes in 5 different flavours. The latter two that contain "superfoods" have been more recently released in addition to the original three flavours.
- Salmon with Rice
- Turkey with Rice
- Lamb with Rice
- Atlantic White Fish with Superfoods
- Free Run Chicken with Superfoods
Overall, the Wainwrights formula is constructed with high-quality ingredients, including a singular source of protein, and excludes potential allergens like wheat, pork, dairy, soya, and artificial flavours, colours, and preservatives.
Its hypoallergenic nature is great news as this makes it less likely to trigger allergies in dogs. Skin or food allergies developed later in life can play a detrimental impact on a pet's quality of life.
The food is crafted to be easily digestible, accommodating the developing digestive systems of puppies and helping to prevent gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea and vomiting.
Furthermore, Wainwrights Puppy Food comes in an assortment of flavours, such as lamb, turkey, and salmon, providing a range of options to ensure your puppy finds a flavour they enjoy.
Two other flavours were added to the range later, with the extra addition of superfoods to each of them. Read on to see our review of the salmon & superfoods version recipe.
Wet Wainwrights Puppy Food (Pouches or Trays)
Rating: stars stars stars
Top 5 Label Ingredients: Chicken 45%, Brown Rice 10%, Dried Peas 4%, Carrots 4%, Minerals
Type: Wet Food, Hypoallergenic
Made For: All puppies from small to large breeds
Age Range: From 8 weeks to 18 months.
The wet Wainwrights puppy food comes in either pouches or trays. There are two flavours available for your puppy:
- Chicken with Rice
- Turkey with Rice
- Lamb with Rice
- Tuna with Rice
- Salmon with Superfoods
Wainwrights has been a staple of puppy food in the UK for a very long time. Overall the reviews are mixed and they also make food and other treats for adult dogs. In my opinion, the adult dog food that they make seems to be of better quality than the puppy food for some reason.
A significant number of reviews have mentioned that their puppy started having diarrhoea when they were switched to Wainwrights.
Here is a sample review from Pets at Home:
"Iv used wainwright's food for a number of years for my dogs my female dog has had puppy's so thought I'd give her extra in her meals (wainwright's puppy dry food) it has caused really bad diarrhoea iv now stopped the meat and diarrhoea stopped, gave her a meal with it in again and diarrhoea has started"
Of course it doesn't mean that this applies to all cases and if you have had good experience with Wainwrights in the past, you may also wish to try it.
All versions of Wainwrights are hypoallergenic. In this case it means that they do not contain added wheat, soya and artificial colours or preservatives.
The ingredients are not bad, although it has less than 50% chicken. There is a good vegetable content, including high amount of carrots and peas, which we know to be healthy for dogs.
The Wainwrights Atlantic Salmon with Superfoods
Rating: stars stars stars stars
Top 5 Label Ingredients: Salmon 70%, Dehydrated sweet potato 3%, Dehydrated peas 1.3%, Krill meal 1%, Minerals.
I wanted to test the Atlantic Salmon with Superfoods variety with my puppy to see what he thinks. This is a variety of the wet Wainwrights puppy food.
I am not entirely sure from the label if Wainwrights refers to sweet potato as a superfood (because it's really not). However, the rest of the content seemed quite nutritious. This includes Krill, Seaweed and Green Lipped Mussels (yum!)
The superfoods, aka krill content however is only 1%, followed by 0.1% dry seaweed and 0.05% green lipped mussels.
Ugh, what?
So the superfoods only really make up about 1.15% of the whole meal...
I'll let you make of that what you will.
Here is what the bowl looks like:
Overall, my puppy loved it. But being a Labrador, he's not very fussy at all and will eat almost anything.
I gave this particular flavour four stars because the salmon content of 70% is actually very good compared to other brands. In addition, it also has a drop of Chicory Root Extract (0.05%) which is a source of prebiotic. This comes in the form of fructo-oligosaccharides. If your puppy is over 12 weeks, then you can also increase their pre and probiotic intake with a natural food topper.
The "superfood" content however is insignificant. It also lacks vegetables that are nutritious for puppies such as carrots.
I am known to be harsh with my ratings though. If you do want to give Wainwrights a go, this particular flavour isn't a bad one to start with.
If you're a fan of video, here is a video from Pets at Home with various Wainwrights testimonials.
Wainwrights Puppy Food Feeding Guide
Here is a rough guide on how much to feed your puppy of the dry food. You can either use this dry food on its own, or in combination with a wet puppy food either from Wainwrights or a different brand.
If you choose to go for Wainwright's wet puppy food, the feeding guide will be present on the back of the packaging.
Note that with the wet food you have two options:
- Wainwrights wet tray puppy food
- Wainwrights wet pouches puppy food
The contents seem to be similar in both of these variants.
Remember that ultimately, each puppy is different so you need to use your judgement to see if you need to increase or decrease the amount of food your puppy has. This constant monitoring ensures that they are a healthy weight, nor underweight or overweight.
Inadequate weight in a dog is associated with various health problems so bringing up your puppy with the right food habits is key to ensuring a healthy lifespan 😊.
Where can you buy Wainwrights Puppy Food?
Wainwrights is available to buy both from Amazon and from Pets at Home.
Some supermarkets in the UK may stock this brand as well in the physical stores, but at time of writing it's not generally available in the major ones such as Tesco, Sainsbury's Asda or Waitrose. If this changes in the future we will update this page.
Before you go...
Wainwrights Puppy Food is in my opinion an average choice of food for your puppy, with much better options available. One of these widely available choices is Lily's Kitchen and you can just buy one or two cans from Pets at Home to start with and see if your puppy prefers it. To read more about this one and other choices, read my page below.
