Harringtons Dry Adult: Rich In Lamb & Rice review

Our Good band takes every variety here, level with the typical adult dry food, and that is a fair account of what these labels offer. The meat share is a real 28%, the cereals chosen are decent ones and the small print is tidier than the shelf position suggests. Holding the reading level are the familiar things. Only 7% of the meat carries a species name, the starch load runs above what is typical, and protein converts to between 22.8% and 23.9% of dry matter. Transparency reads Outstanding across the range and value sits at Good alongside the overall, with protein and processing Average and nutritional balance Poor. This is a food that will feed an ordinary adult dog without fuss, and it makes no claim to be doing anything more ambitious.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb and Meat Meals 28% (Including Dried Lamb 7% & Freshly prepared Chicken 4%), Maize, Barley, Oats (10%), Rice (5.6%), Chicken Fat (3%), Omega Blend (Salmon Oil, Vegetable oil & Linseed 1.8%), Minerals, Seaweed (1000mg/kg), FOS (1000mg/kg), Yucca Extract (100mg/kg)

The line that needs unpicking is the first one. Meat and meat meals at 28% tells you how much animal material went in. The bracket that follows tells you how much of it is identified: 7% dried meat of the species on the front, plus 4% freshly prepared chicken. What is left is real meat and real meat meal, with no animal named against it.

Meat meal itself deserves less suspicion than it usually attracts. It is meat that has had its water and most of its fat taken out before it is weighed, which makes it a dense protein source rather than a corner cut. The reservation on this label is about naming, not about the material.

The base is maize with barley, oats and rice behind it. Oats bring soluble fibre and a good spread of micronutrients. Barley cooks down without trouble for a dog, and maize is the workhorse holding the kibble together. Together they push carbohydrate to roughly 53% of dry matter, over the 46.2% an adult dry food usually carries. Protein settles between 22.8% and 23.9% of dry matter depending on the flavour.

The omega blend is salmon oil, vegetable oil and linseed totalling 1.8%. Salmon oil and linseed are both worth having, the first supplying marine omega 3 directly and the second the plant form that a dog converts more slowly. Vegetable oil is the soft spot in that phrase, since it names no plant at all.

There is not much else in the small print, and what there is makes sense. Seaweed at 1000 mg per kilo brings iodine and a broad mineral spread. FOS at the same dose is a prebiotic, food for the microbes already down there, and yucca extract at 100 mg per kilo softens what comes out the other end. The vitamin and mineral panel is dosed in print. Vitamin D3 comes at 1500 iu and vitamin E at 150 mg. Zinc is at 75 mg, iron and manganese at 50 mg each, copper at 5 mg, iodine at 0.5 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg. These are sulphate and oxide forms, not chelates.

Calcium is the one figure the label never gives, and it is the figure that counts most while a big puppy is growing. These recipes are written for adults, so it is not a gap that touches the dogs they are aimed at.

Dried lamb at 7% gives this bag its name, sitting alongside the same 4% freshly prepared chicken as the rest of the range. Call it a lamb recipe, not a lamb-only one. Protein reads 21.0%, fat 11.0% and energy 357 kcal per 100g, the same as the chicken bag, with oats at 10% and rice at 5.6% on the plant side.

The beef is £2.87 a kilo and comes in a 4kg bag. The chicken, lamb, salmon and turkey are each £2.07 a kilo, all four in 1.7kg, with 15kg bags for the lamb and the turkey and a 12kg for the salmon.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 235 and 243 grams a day across the range, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at between £0.49 and £0.68 a day depending on which meat you choose. The bag asks 180 to 360 grams for a dog of 10kg to 20kg, so let the waistline arbitrate.