Harringtons Just 6 Chicken Grain Free Dry Dog Food - 2KG

The Harringtons Just 6 Chicken Grain Free Dry Dog Food is the simplest recipe Harringtons make: chicken, sweet potato, peas, potato, salmon oil and chicken gravy. That is the whole list, and a short list is exactly what you want when you are trying to pin down what a sensitive dog reacts to.

Key Features

• The Six: Chicken, sweet potato, peas, potato, salmon oil and chicken gravy
• Over Half Meat And Fish: Harringtons put the chicken and salmon content above 50 per cent
• Three Bag Sizes: 2kg, 6kg and 12kg
• Grain-Free: Sweet potato, potato and peas in place of cereal
• Harringtons' Hypoallergenic Recipe: Built around a short ingredient list, which is what makes it useful for a sensitive dog
• FreshCook Baking: Slow-baked at a lower temperature, which Harringtons say retains more nutrients
• Complete And Balanced: Feed it alone or mix it with a wet recipe
• No Artificial Colours Or Flavours: And no grain, soya, dairy or added wheat
• Made In Yorkshire: Produced in the UK by Inspired Pet Nutrition

What The Six Actually Means

The Just 6 promise is that the recipe is built from six recognisable ingredients rather than a long list. It is a genuinely useful idea: a short list makes it far easier to work out what your dog is reacting to, and easier to avoid something specific. Two clarifications. The six are the main ingredients -- like any complete food, it also contains the added vitamins and minerals it needs to be nutritionally complete, which is a legal requirement rather than a loophole. And the gravy counts as one of the six, which is where the difference between the recipes lies.

The Chicken-Free Ones

Worth knowing if you are avoiding chicken, because almost nothing else in the Harringtons range is: Just 6 Lamb uses lamb gravy and Just 6 Salmon uses salmon jus, rather than the chicken gravy that coats the rest of the brand's dry food. Those two are the ones to look at for a chicken-sensitive dog. All three still contain salmon oil, so none of them is fish-free.

Grain-Free Is A Choice, Not An Upgrade

Grain-free suits a dog that reacts to wheat or has a sensitive gut, and plenty do better on it. Two things worth knowing. Grain is not a common allergen in dogs -- chicken, beef and dairy come up far more often -- so grain-free is not automatically the hypoallergenic answer. And grain-free recipes replace cereal with potato, sweet potato, peas and pulses rather than with more meat. If your dog is comfortable on a recipe with rice in it, there is no nutritional reason to switch.

About The Hypoallergenic Label

Hypoallergenic is a marketing word rather than a regulated one. It means the recipe leaves out the ingredients that most often cause trouble -- here grain, soya, dairy and, in some recipes, egg, beef and pork. It does not mean no dog will react to it. A genuine food allergy is identified by an elimination diet run with a vet over eight to twelve weeks on a single protein the dog has not met before, and the commonest culprits in dogs are chicken, beef and dairy rather than grain. If your dog is being investigated, check the full panel against what you are excluding.

The Grain-Free Heart Question

You may have come across discussion linking grain-free diets high in peas and pulses to a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. The investigation that started it has not established a cause, the reported cases were concentrated in particular brands and recipes, and the picture is still unsettled. We mention it so you have heard it from us rather than only from a forum. Taurine is the nutrient at the centre of the discussion; if it matters to you, look for a recipe with taurine added, and talk to your vet if your dog has a heart murmur or a breed predisposition.

FreshCook

Harringtons' name for baking the kibble slowly at a lower temperature than standard extrusion. The claim is better retention of nutrients and a crunchier kibble. It is a reasonable claim in principle -- heat does degrade some vitamins, which is why manufacturers overdose them -- and not something you will be able to see for yourself. Take it as a point in its favour rather than a reason to choose it.

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

• A short ingredient list is the real reason to buy this range. If you are trying to work out what upsets your dog, six ingredients is a far better starting point than thirty.
• It is not a veterinary elimination diet. If your vet is investigating a food allergy properly, they will want a hydrolysed or single novel protein diet rather than a retail recipe.
• Use a large bag within about six weeks of opening, and keep it in its own bag inside a sealed container.