Harringtons

Harringtons is made by Inspired Pet Nutrition in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. It sits in the useful middle of the market -- meat first, no artificial colours or flavours, no dairy or soya, no added wheat, and a price that is a long way below the premium brands. One thing worth untangling: the 1923 date attached to the brand belongs to the company, which began as the Harrington family's animal feed mill in Tadcaster. The Harringtons pet food range itself launched in 2008.

Which Dog Range

• Complete -- the rice-based everyday range, in beef, chicken, lamb and turkey, plus puppy and senior recipes. Labelled suitable from eight weeks, which means it meets growth requirements as well as maintenance.
• Salmon & Potato -- the grain-free recipe inside the Complete range, for a dog with a sensitive gut.
• Just 6 -- six main ingredients, grain-free, in chicken, lamb and salmon, as dry food and as tins. The short list is the point: it makes working out what upsets your dog far easier.
• Superfoods -- the top of the range. Grain-free, higher meat, a botanical mix, and added taurine. Adult and puppy.
• Wet trays and tins -- all grain-free, cooked in the sealed tray so nothing is added afterwards. Chicken, turkey, salmon, duck, a puppy recipe and a variety box.
• High Meat treats -- 45 to 90 per cent meat, soft and chewy. Good training treats, not chews.

Read This Before You Buy For A Chicken-Sensitive Dog

This is the single most useful thing on this page. Almost every Harringtons dry recipe is coated in 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, and chicken is one of the most common food allergens in dogs. The two exceptions are Just 6 Lamb, which uses lamb gravy, and Just 6 Salmon, which uses salmon jus. Those are the ones to look at. Related: salmon oil is in the base of the whole range, so every recipe contains fish -- including the ones named after meat.

Cat Food

• Dry -- chicken, salmon and an indoor recipe, all 2kg.
• Wet pouches -- Fish In Jelly and Meat In Jelly in 12-pouch packs, plus 40-pouch boxes of Meat Fillets In Gravy and a Mixed Selection In Jelly. Harringtons state that all the protein comes from animal sources.
• If you feed dry food, the thing worth acting on is water. A cat on kibble alone takes in a fraction of the water a cat on wet food does and rarely makes it up at the bowl, which matters over years for the urinary tract and kidneys. A wet meal a day, a fountain, or simply more bowls away from the food all help.

Reading The Labels Honestly

• No added wheat is not the same as cereal-free. The Complete recipes contain rice and maize. For genuinely cereal-free, go to Just 6, Superfoods or Salmon & Potato.
• Hypoallergenic is a marketing word, not a regulated one. It means the common troublemakers have been left out, not that no dog will react. A real food allergy is diagnosed by an elimination diet run with a vet.
• Grain-free is a choice rather than an upgrade. Grain is not a common allergen in dogs -- chicken, beef and dairy come up far more often -- and grain-free recipes replace cereal with potato and pulses rather than with more meat.
• Superfoods has no nutritional definition. The reasons to pick that range are the grain-free base, the meat level and the added taurine, not the blueberries.
• Carbon negative is Harringtons' own claim, and it generally means emissions offset rather than never produced. Worth knowing, worth reading as marketing.

Good To Know

• Change food over a week to ten days, a quarter at a time. Loose stools during a change are normal; loose stools a week after you finish mean the food does not suit.
• Feed to body condition, not to the chart. You should 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.
• A large-breed puppy is the one exception to the all-life-stages recipes. Growth food for big dogs controls calcium and energy more tightly, so use the Puppy or Superfoods Puppy recipes and keep the puppy lean.
• Storage matters more here than in the UK. Heat and humidity turn the fat in kibble rancid. Keep it in its own bag inside a sealed container somewhere cool and dark, and use a large bag within about six weeks of opening.
• Repeatedly switching food is how an underlying problem goes undiagnosed. Persistent diarrhoea, scratching to the point of broken skin, recurring ear infections or unexplained weight loss need a vet, not another bag.