Harringtons Superfoods Grain free Dry: Chicken with Vegetables review

Our scoring settles all three recipes in the Good band. The middle of the adult dry category sits there too, so this range keeps pace with the shelf and does not pull clear of it. Naming the animal and printing its share is what holds it steady. What stops it climbing is how much of the recipe goes to sweet potato, potato, peas and beans. A fresh meat share given only as a minimum holds it back too, and so does an undeclared moisture figure that leaves the dry matter reading on the usual 8% assumption for a dry food.

Ingredients, as declared: 30% Chicken (Including, 21% Dried Chicken*, 5% Chicken Fat, min 4% Freshly Prepared Chicken), Sweet Potato (26%), Potato, Peas, Beans (8%), Linseed (4%), Beet Pulp (3%), Minerals, Superfood Botanical Blend: Rosemary, Spinach, Pomegranate & Blueberries (1500mg/kg), FOS (1000mg/kg), Yeasts (1000mg/kg), Seaweed (1000mg/kg)

Every recipe declares 30% meat and then shows its working. The chicken block is 21% dried chicken, 5% chicken fat and at least 4% freshly prepared chicken. The turkey is 22% dried turkey with 4% chicken fat and the same minimum 4% of fresh chicken. The salmon block is 24% dried salmon, 2% salmon oil and at least 4% freshly prepared chicken gravy. Dried meat leading each block is the useful part, since it has already been through the oven and its protein is not about to shrink away.

After the meat, the single largest entry is sweet potato at 26%. Potato, peas and beans follow at 8%. Sweet potato is one of the better starch sources for a dog. It brings fibre and vitamin A along with the energy, and it holds blood sugar steadier than plain potato does. The trade is that beans and peas contribute protein of their own, so the analysis figure on the pack reflects the plants as well as the animal.

Linseed at 3% to 4% and beet pulp at 3% to 4% are quietly doing real jobs. Linseed is the recipe's plant omega 3 source. That conversion to the skin-active forms runs slower in a dog than it does from the marine kind. Give a coat weeks rather than days to answer. Beet pulp is the fermentable fibre that firms a stool up.

The blend the range takes its name from is rosemary, spinach, pomegranate and blueberries at 1500 mg per kilo, with FOS, yeasts and seaweed at 1000 mg each. Put in perspective that is a gram or two in every kilo of food, so the recipe does not stand or fall on it. It is not decoration either. FOS is a genuine prebiotic for the useful gut bacteria. Seaweed carries iodine, and rosemary keeps the bag fresh as a natural antioxidant.

The additive panel is dosed, and the selenium deserves a mention. It comes only in the organic form, the better absorbed of the two the rules allow and the one a maker picks deliberately. Taurine is dosed at 1000 mg per kilo, an amino acid the heart makes good use of. Zinc sits at 75 mg, with iron and manganese at 50 mg each, copper at 5 mg and iodine at 1 mg per kilo. Vitamin D3 is at 1600 iu and vitamin E at 150 mg.

Dried chicken at 21%, chicken fat at 5% and freshly prepared chicken at a minimum of 4% make up the meat block. There is no second animal on the list. In this range it is the one recipe carrying no fish. Reach for it when a dog needs one named bird and nothing else beside it.

£3.83 a kilo for the chicken and the salmon, which come in 1.7kg and 12kg bags. The turkey is sold in the 1.7kg bag.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through about 237 grams of the chicken or the salmon, on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The turkey comes to 238 grams. On the chicken and the salmon that lands at roughly £0.91 a day. The feeding chart asks 175 to 300 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so use the waistline to settle where your own dog falls.