What Our British Heritage Kitchens covers
Our British Heritage Kitchens brings together Essential Foods' dry food for dogs in the British recipe range, where each menu is built around meat and fish from well-known British and Irish ingredients and prepared in combination with fruit, vegetables and herbs. In this collection you will find the full span of recipes: from everyday menus for adult dogs, to food tailored to specific life stages and needs, and on to the versions that are boosted in energy for working and hunting dogs.
The common denominator is that the menus bear the name "Our Finest" and are named after a landscape or a quality, not after a single type of meat. A name like Nautical points towards fish from the sea, Highland and Estate towards meat from the land, while names like Older, Contour, Stamina and Balance tell you which need the menu is made for. This makes the collection the place where you choose based on your dog's age, activity level and size rather than on a single flavour.
How to choose based on your dog's life stage
The first thing that determines the choice is where your dog is in life. The range has its own menus for each end of life and for the long stretch in between.
For the puppy there is The Beginning in two variants: one for small breeds and one for large breeds. The difference is about the size of the kibble and about the balance between energy and minerals that a large breed's slower growth requires. If you want to read more about why the choice between small and large breed matters for a puppy, we have gathered it in the article best puppy food, and the entire puppy assortment is found under puppy.
For the adult dog in ordinary condition, it is the menus such as highland Living - kibble, Nautical Living - Kibble, Estate Living samples and superior Living sample that form the base of everyday life.
For the older dog there is Older, which comes in both an ordinary kibble size and a version with small kibbles. When the metabolism declines and the joints become more sensitive, the need is different from that of the young dog, and that is exactly what a senior menu like Older Kibble takes into account. If you are unsure of when the switch is relevant, you can read when is a dog a senior.
The menus for special needs
Beyond the life stages, the range has a set of menus that are made for a specific need rather than a specific age.
Contour is the menu for dogs that need to maintain or lose weight. It is composed so that the dog can eat a filling portion without taking in too many calories. If your dog tends to gain weight, or needs to lose weight on the vet's recommendation, this is where you look, and you also find it via Contour - Kibble. The background for how to read a healthy weight we have described in does your dog have a healthy weight.
Stamina is the energy-rich menu for dogs with high consumption: active dogs, hunting dogs and dogs in hard training, where an ordinary adult menu does not cover the need. The entire energy-rich assortment is found under working & sporting and Stamina - Kibble.
Balance is the menu for the adult dog with a more sensitive stomach or a wish for a calmer composition. It is also found via Balance - Kibble, and if you have a dog with delicate digestion, you can read more in best dog food for sensitive stomachs.
Nautical, Highland, Estate, Superior and Eternal
Several of the menus in the range cover the same life stage, the adult dog in good condition, but differ in the main ingredient. Here you choose not according to need, but according to what your dog thrives best on, and what you would like to feed with.
Nautical is the fish menu, built around fish from the sea. It is often a good choice for dogs that tolerate fish better than meat, or that you would like to give a menu with a high content of marine fatty acids. Highland and Estate are the meat menus, each with its own ingredient profile from the land. Superior is the protein-rich menu at the top end of the range. Eternal is the poultry-based menu in the assortment.
Because the five share life stage, you can in practice switch between them depending on what suits your dog, as long as you do it gradually. If you are unsure which ingredient your dog does best with, a taste box is an easy way to try several menus before committing to a large bag.
Try several menus with a taste box
If you don't know which of the menus your dog prefers, or whether it thrives best on fish or meat, you can start with one of the range's taste boxes rather than buying a single 10 kg bag at random.
Classic Taste Box and Countryside Taste Box each contain three bags with different menus from the range, so you can let the dog taste its way forward and see how the stomach and coat react before you choose the permanent menu. Both come in both 2.5 kg and 10 kg versions. A taste box is also a practical route if you are switching from another brand and want to find the right menu without food waste. Remember to change food gradually over the course of a week, so the stomach can keep up. The procedure is set out step by step in how to switch dog food.
Small kibbles for small mouths and fussy eaters
Several of the menus come in a version with small kibbles. It is the same recipe as the standard version, but made smaller, so that it fits better for small breeds, puppies on their way to adult food and older dogs with sensitive teeth.
The size of the kibble matters more than you might think. A small dog with a small mouth can find it difficult to chew a large kibble properly, and some dogs skip the food altogether if the pieces are too large. Here the small kibbles version of, for example, Highland, Nautical, Estate, Superior, Older and Contour can make the difference. If you have a small dog, you can also see the entire tailored assortment under dog food for small dogs and read about the special considerations in best dog food for small dogs.
The working versions for hunting and working dogs
A large part of the range comes in a special Working version, often in 12 kg bags under Working & Sporting. It is not just larger bags: the energy content is boosted, so that a dog with high consumption can cover its need without having to eat unreasonably large portions.
You find working versions of several of the well-known menus, including Nautical, Highland, Estate, Superior, Stamina, Older and The Beginning Large Breed. The choice between an ordinary menu and a working version depends on how hard your dog actually works. A family dog with daily walks does fine on an ordinary adult menu, while a hunting dog in season or a dog in intensive training typically needs the energy-rich version. If you overestimate the consumption, you simply risk the dog gaining weight.
2.5 kg or 10 kg
Most menus come in two bag sizes. The choice is mostly about how quickly your dog finishes the bag, and about where you store it.
A 2.5 kg bag is ideal for small dogs, for trying a new menu, or when you want to avoid the food standing too long after opening. A 10 kg bag is the most economical choice for medium-sized and large dogs that eat a fair amount each day, so the bag is emptied within a reasonable time. Regardless of size, it is a good idea to close the bag tightly between each feeding, so the kibble's fats stay fresh. If you are unsure of how much your dog should have, so that the right bag size matches consumption, you can calculate in how much should a dog eat.
How to read the names in the range
The names in the range may seem many, but they follow a fixed system that makes them easy to decode once you know the logic.
- Landscape names like Nautical, Highland and Estate tell you about the ingredient: Nautical is fish, the others are meat from the land.
- Quality names like Older, Contour, Stamina and Balance tell you about the need: age, weight, energy or a calm composition.
- The Beginning is the puppy menu, divided into Small Breed and Large Breed according to breed size.
- The addition Working or Working & Sporting means that the menu is boosted in energy for dogs with high consumption.
- Small Kibbles means the same recipe, but smaller kibble for small mouths.
With that key you can read any bag in the collection and know who it is for. If you want the full background for what determines the right choice according to age, size and need, you can read which dog food should I choose.
