In this review, I have been ably assisted by my dog, Harley, who is a six year old Jack-a-Poo. He is not generally a fussy eater, but will occasionally turn his nose up at certain brands.
We have now been trying the pouches for the past month and Harley appears to have enjoyed both products.
We have attempted a number of tests to see if he has a preference, by using similar bowls placed in front of him at the same time with the same flavour food from each maker. On each occasion he has gone to a different brand and has started and finished one before moving on to the other.
We have also tried one week on each brand to see if there has been any effect on his wellbeing. Nothing noticeable was seen from either product. I would note that often Harley in the past has started and then left food for later. With each of the test products he has cleared his bowl at first attempt.
From an owner’s point of view, both products come in similar foil pouches and are easy to open by simply ripping across the top of the pouch.
I would say that the Pedigree pouches we tested were easier to empty, due to the meat being in jelly and therefore sliding out in one go.
Although it then required to be broken up with a spoon. Whereby the Winalot being in gravy took a little more persuasion to get everything emptied into the bowl.
However, the Winalot looked more appetising with the addition of small vegetable chunks and rich looking gravy. The Pedigree varieties looked all very similar and had very little smell. Not a complaint, as some dog food smells can be unpleasant.
The Winalot, on the other hand, was quite noticeably different from flavour to flavour and there was a little more odour, although they actually smelt really nice and what you would expect of chicken, lamb or beef. This is possibly down to the contents of the gravy, rather than the meat itself though.
I would conclude that we would be happy to purchase either product for our dog, based on the test. But, if we were to pick a winner it would be the Winalot due to how the food looked and smelt.
The slight inconvenience of getting the food out of the pouch seemed worth it. We liked the addition of vegetables, as we often supplement Harley’s food with carrot or potato, if left over from our own meal.
Maybe this is something that Pedigree Chum should consider. I think Winalot could possibly increase the quantity of vegetable, as the chunks were quite small, but not at the expense of the meat quantity.
