In order to improve the heat and mass transfer performance of porous wicks, a composite porous wick was prepared by using copper or nickel foam as the skeleton and filling with the dendritic copper or nickel powders in this work. The foam metal can provide reliable porous framework and good heat transfer performance. And the dendritic metal powders can regulate the pore structure and pore size distribution inside the foam metal. The physical properties of the composite porous wick, including the porosity, capillary pumping capacity, effective thermal conductivity and evaporating rate, were studied experimentally. The prepared composite porous wicks had high porosity and low effective thermal conductivity in the range of 4.1?9.8 W/(m?K). According to the filling amount of metal powders and the microstructure of samples, the foam nickel and dendritic nickel powder were the most suitable combination for loose sintering of composite porous wick. Porosity had little effect on capillary pumping capacity of the composite porous wicks, but the porous structure and pore size distribution of porous wicks can cause the obvious effect. Due to the use of metal foam as skeleton, partial evaporation can be formed locally on the surface of composite porous wicks, and heat transfer equilibrium can be achieved by surface evaporation at low heat load of 30 W. Increase the heat load to 50 W or 70 W, local temperature on composite porous wick was over 100℃, and heat transfer entered the meniscus evaporation inside composite porous wick. Based on capillary pumping characteristics, effective thermal conductivities and evaporating rates in these porous samples, the composite porous wick with nickel foam as the skeleton and the mass ratio of dendritic nickel powder to the pore former of 5:5 had the best performance. The simple preparing method for the composite porous wick was proposed, and it was expected to be used for further practical application in loop heat pipe.