Harringtons Dry Senior review

Our reading places this in the Average band, one rung below the typical adult dry food. It earns that place honestly. The label prints a real 26% meat share and holds the fat low, which is the right instinct for a dog that is not moving much. Seaweed, a prebiotic and a small joint pair go on top. Against that, only 6.5% of the meat is named, protein converts to 22.3% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 56.5%. Transparency reads Outstanding, with protein and processing at Average and nutritional balance at Poor. The result is a food that will suit a comfortable, well-covered older dog rather better than a lean one.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken and Meat Meals 26% (Dried Chicken 6.5%*), Barley, Maize, Rice (14%), Oats (4%), Freshly Prepared Chicken (4%), Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil (1%), Poultry Fat, Minerals, Poultry Gravy (0.5%), Seaweed (0.1%), FOS (0.1%), Glucosamine (0.05%), Chondroitin (0.01%), Yucca Extract (0.01%)

The first entry is chicken and meat meals at 26%, of which 6.5% is declared as dried chicken. A further 4% arrives as freshly prepared chicken, mostly water until the oven gets to it. The rest of that 26% is genuine meat material with no species attached to it.

Barley, maize and rice at 14% form the base, with oats at 4% behind them. These are perfectly reasonable cereals. The point to take from the analysis is their quantity: carbohydrate is estimated at 52.0% as fed, or 56.5% of dry matter, where adult dry food usually runs at 46.2%.

Fat is deliberately low, at 7.5% as fed and 8.2% of dry matter, and energy at 334 kcal per 100g is well under the 357 kcal an adult dry food typically carries. A senior recipe exists for exactly that combination. An older dog gets a bowl that still looks like a proper meal without the calories that come with a working dog's food.

Salmon oil at 1% is the pick of the small print. Marine omega 3 goes straight to work, with none of the conversion a plant source needs first. Beet pulp handles fibre at 3.5%, seaweed at 0.1% brings iodine, FOS at 0.1% is a prebiotic for the gut's own bacteria, and yucca extract at 0.01% is there for odour.

The joint additions are honest but small. Glucosamine at 0.05% and chondroitin at 0.01% are both genuine cartilage components, and both appear here at a fraction of a supplement's dose. Read them as a thoughtful touch on a senior food rather than as a treatment plan.

Poultry fat and poultry gravy both stop short of naming a bird, which is this label's main reticence. Every line in the vitamin and mineral panel carries a dose. Vitamin D3 is at 1500 iu, vitamin E at 150 mg and zinc at 75 mg. Iron and manganese come at 50 mg each, copper at 5 mg, iodine at 0.5 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg. Calcium is not declared anywhere.

£2.42 a kilo, in 1.7kg and 12kg bags.

For a 15kg dog in moderate condition, the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75) puts this at roughly 251 grams a day, or £0.61 a day. On the pack, the guide runs 170 to 350 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, and an older dog's waistline is the honest referee.