Harringtons Superfoods Chicken with Vegetables Adult Dry Dog Food - 1.7KG

The Harringtons Superfoods Chicken with Vegetables Adult Dry Dog Food is the top of Harringtons' dry range: grain-free, chicken first, with a botanical mix and added taurine. In 1.7kg and 12kg.

Key Features

• Chicken First: Freshly prepared chicken heads the ingredient list
• Grain-Free And Hypoallergenic: No grain, wheat, soya or dairy
• Six Superfoods: Rosemary, spinach, pomegranate, blueberries, beans and sweet potato
• Added Taurine: For heart support, which is worth having in a grain-free recipe
• Omega 3 And 6: For skin and coat
• Beet Pulp And Chicory: For digestion. Seaweed for oral hygiene
• No Artificial Colours Or Flavours: Made in the UK by Inspired Pet Nutrition

The Six Superfoods

Rosemary, spinach, pomegranate, blueberries, beans and sweet potato. All perfectly good ingredients, all present in small amounts, and none of them going to transform a dog. Superfood is a marketing word with no nutritional definition behind it. What this range genuinely has going for it is the rest of the specification: grain-free, high meat inclusion, added taurine for the heart, omega oils for the coat, and beet pulp and chicory for digestion. Buy it for that and treat the berries as a pleasant extra.

Why Added Taurine Matters Here

Taurine is an amino acid that dogs can normally make for themselves, unlike cats, which must get it from food. It has come up in the discussion about grain-free diets and heart disease, and adding it is the straightforward response to that concern. Its presence in these recipes is one of the better reasons to pick the Superfoods range over a grain-free food that does not include it.

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.

Chicken Gravy Is In Almost All Of Them

This is the thing most worth knowing before you buy, because it catches people out. Most Harringtons dry recipes are coated with what the brand calls homemade chicken gravy, whatever protein is named on the front of the bag. The Lamb & Rice, the Turkey & Veg, the Beef and the Superfoods Salmon all contain chicken. Chicken happens to be one of the most common food allergens in dogs, so if that is what you are avoiding, read the ingredient panel rather than the name. The exceptions are Just 6 Lamb and Just 6 Salmon, which use lamb gravy and salmon jus instead.

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.

The Added Extras, Honestly

• Prebiotic FOS -- fructo-oligosaccharides, which feed the gut's own bacteria. A real mechanism, a modest effect, and now in most mid-market foods.
• Seaweed -- included for oral hygiene. Some seaweed-derived ingredients do have evidence behind them for slowing tartar, but no dry food cleans teeth the way brushing does. A bonus, not a dental plan.
• Omega 3 and 6 from salmon oil -- the best-supported addition in the list, and the one you are most likely to see the effect of, in the coat, over a couple of months.
• Vitamin E -- an antioxidant, and also what stops the fats in the food going rancid. The immune-support framing around it is a stretch.
• Botanicals and superfoods -- present in small amounts. Pleasant, unlikely to do harm, and not the reason to choose a food.

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

• This is the most expensive dry range Harringtons make. What you are paying for is the grain-free base, the meat inclusion and the taurine -- not the blueberries.
• Introduce it over a week to ten days. A richer food changed suddenly is the usual cause of a loose few days.
• Keep it in its own bag inside a sealed container, somewhere cool and dark.