Harringtons Complete Chicken Adult Dry Cat Food - 2kg

The Harringtons Complete Chicken Adult Dry Cat Food is the standard dry recipe for adult cats: chicken-based, complete on its own, and built around the same exclusions as the dog range -- no artificial colours or flavours, no dairy, no soya, no added wheat.

Key Features

• Chicken Recipe: With freshly prepared chicken in the formulation
• For Adult Cats: Not a kitten food -- kittens need higher energy and protein
• Complete And Balanced: Formulated to meet an adult cat's full nutritional requirements
• No Artificial Colours Or Flavours: And no dairy, no soya and no added wheat
• Made In Yorkshire: Produced in the UK by Inspired Pet Nutrition
• 2kg Bag: The only size in this recipe

Cats Are Not Small Dogs

A cat is an obligate carnivore. It cannot make taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A or niacin from plant sources the way a dog can, which is why cat food and dog food are not interchangeable and why a cat fed on dog food goes blind and develops heart failure over months. Cats also drink poorly, having descended from a desert animal that took most of its water from prey, so wet food does real work for urinary and kidney health. And a cat that stops eating needs attention within a day or two, not a week -- unlike a dog, a fasting cat can develop liver problems quickly.

Cats And Water

This is the thing most worth acting on if you feed dry food. A cat on kibble alone takes in a fraction of the water a cat on wet food does, and it rarely makes the difference up at the bowl. Over years that matters for the urinary tract and the kidneys, which is where a great many cats eventually have trouble. You do not have to switch to wet food -- but add a wet meal a day, or a fountain, or simply more bowls in more places away from the food. Cats dislike drinking next to where they eat, which is why so many of them prefer a tap.

What Is Not In It

Harringtons build the range around exclusions, and these are the ones they list: no artificial colours, no artificial flavours, no dairy, no soya, no added wheat. Read the word added carefully. A food can be free from added wheat and still contain other cereals, which the Complete recipes do in the form of rice and maize. If you need a genuinely cereal-free food, that is the Just 6, Superfoods and Salmon & Potato recipes rather than Complete.

How Much To Feed

Treat the chart on the bag as a starting point, not an instruction -- the figures assume an average activity level and most pets are not average. The honest check is body condition rather than the number on the scales: you should be able to feel the ribs easily under a thin covering, see a waist from above and a tuck from the side. Weigh the food rather than scooping it, and count treats, because that is where the extra calories almost always come from. Fresh water with every meal.

Changing Food Gradually

Switch over a week to ten days rather than overnight. Start at roughly a quarter new food to three quarters old, move to half and half, then three quarters, holding each stage for two or three days. Loose stools during a change are normal. Loose stools still there a week after you finish mean the food does not suit. Cats are less forgiving than dogs about this and may simply refuse a sudden change.

Wet, Dry Or Both

Either can be a complete diet and mixing them is fine. Dry is cheaper per day, keeps once opened and is easy to measure. Wet is roughly eighty per cent water, which matters far more for cats than dogs. If you mix, split the daily allowance between the two rather than feeding a full portion of each -- that is the commonest way a pet quietly puts on weight.

Storing It In This Climate

• Keep dry food in its own bag inside an airtight container rather than tipping it loose into a bin. The bag has a fat barrier, and the batch code and best-before are printed on it.
• Heat and humidity turn the fat in kibble rancid faster than anything else does. Somewhere cool and dark, never a hot garage, balcony or car.
• Use a large bag within about six weeks of opening. A 15kg bag is only good value if your dog gets through it while it is still fresh.
• Opened wet food goes in the fridge covered and gets used within two days. In summer, anything left down for more than twenty minutes should go in the bin rather than back in the bowl.

When A Food Change Is Not The Answer

Diarrhoea lasting more than a couple of days, blood or black tarry stools, repeated vomiting, scratching to the point of broken skin, recurring ear infections, or any unexplained weight loss all need a vet rather than another bag of food. Switching foods repeatedly is one of the commonest ways an underlying problem goes undiagnosed for months, and it also makes a proper elimination diet harder to run later.

The Carbon Claim

Harringtons describe themselves as the UK's first carbon-negative pet food company and say more than 98 per cent of their packaging is recyclable. That is their claim rather than our measurement, and carbon negative in practice generally means emissions are offset rather than never produced. It is worth knowing because very few pet food brands publish anything on this at all -- and worth reading as marketing rather than as an audit.

Who Makes It

Harringtons is made by Inspired Pet Nutrition in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, which also makes Wagg and Butcher's. One thing worth untangling: the 1923 date you see attached to the brand belongs to the company, not to this range. It refers to the year the Harrington family started an animal feed mill in Tadcaster. The Harringtons pet food range itself launched in 2008.

Good To Know

• Cats are creatures of habit about food and will hold out longer than you expect. Change it over ten days, and if your cat refuses, go back a step rather than waiting it out.
• Feed measured meals rather than leaving the bowl permanently full. Free feeding is the single commonest reason indoor cats are overweight.
• A cat that stops eating for more than a day or two needs a vet, not patience. Unlike dogs, cats that fast can develop liver problems quickly.
• Keep the bag sealed inside a container somewhere cool. Kibble fat goes rancid fast in this climate, and cats notice before we do -- a cat that suddenly rejects its usual food may be telling you the bag has turned.