Harringtons Dry Puppy: Rich in Salmon & Rice review

All three recipes land in our Good band, which is where the typical puppy dry food settles as well, so this range holds the middle of a crowded field. Protein and processing reads Average on all three, nutritional balance and value Good, and transparency Outstanding.

What keeps the ceiling down is naming. A third of each bag is declared as meat meals, with only a slice of that attributed to an animal. No calcium figure is printed at all, and that is the declaration a growth food is judged on more than any other.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon & Meat Meals 32% (including 7% Dried Salmon* & 4% Freshly Prepared Chicken), Maize, Rice (5.6%), Maize Protein, Oats (15%), Chicken Fat (5%), Omega Blend: Salmon Oil, Vegetable Oil & Linseed (1.8%), Minerals, Seaweed (1000mg/kg), FOS (100mg/kg), Yucca Extract (100mg/kg)

Each recipe opens the same way, with a combined meat meals figure of 32% or 33%. Inside that, the chicken bag names dried chicken at 14% and freshly prepared chicken at 4%. The salmon names dried salmon at 7% and the turkey dried turkey at 7%, each with freshly prepared chicken at 4% as well. Whatever else is in that third of the bag is meat meal without an animal beside it.

The useful part of that arithmetic is the dried meat, since the figure printed beside it is nearly what the bowl receives. That is why the chicken recipe, with 14% of its meat named and dried, is the best attributed of the three.

Maize sits second on every list, with rice at 5.6% and oats at 15% or 15.5% behind it. Carbohydrate converts to 40.3% of dry matter on the chicken and salmon recipes and 39.7% on the turkey, against 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food, all worked from a declared moisture of 8.0%.

Protein is 30.0% on all three, converting to 32.6% of dry matter. Fat is 13.0% on the chicken and salmon recipes and 14.0% on the turkey, and crude ash runs 8.5% and 8.0% respectively, with crude fibre at 3.5% throughout.

Calcium is the gap. None of the three labels puts a figure to it, and these bags are sold for toy pups and giant ones alike. A large breed growth claim really wants that number standing behind it. Getting it means asking the maker.

The extras are small but named with their doses, which counts for something. Seaweed comes in at 1000mg/kg on all three and yucca extract at 100mg/kg, while FOS is dosed at 100mg/kg on the chicken and salmon recipes and 1000mg/kg on the turkey. The omega blend of salmon oil, vegetable oil and linseed is declared at 1.8%, with chicken fat at 5% above it on the list.

The added panel prints vitamin D3 at 1500 iu and vitamin E at 150mg per kilo on the chicken and salmon recipes, with vitamin A dosed above them. Vitamin E drops to 100mg on the turkey. The trace element set is zinc at 75mg, iron and manganese at 50mg each, copper at 5mg, iodine at 0.5mg and selenium at 0.1mg.

Rich in Salmon & Rice keeps the same base and changes the named meat, with dried salmon at 7% and freshly prepared chicken at 4% inside a 32% meat meals figure. That chicken matters: this is not a chicken free fish recipe, and chicken fat at 5% is in it as well. Protein reads 30.0% and fat 13.0%, the same as the chicken bag, though energy is lower at 359 kcal per 100g.

The range runs from £1.95 to £2.60 a kilo, in 1.7kg and 10kg bags.

The pack's guide starts at 110g a day for a pup of 3 to 5kg and reaches 525g for one in the 20 to 40kg bracket. Puppy feeding goes by stage rather than by a fixed scoop, so follow that chart and step the amount down as growth slows.