This is the Living series
The Living series is Essential Foods' range of complete dry foods for adult dogs, where each recipe is built around a single main protein source and a name that reveals it. In the series you'll find, among others, Nautical Living with fish, Superior Living, Estate Living, Highland Living and Eternal Living. What they have in common is that they are intended as a daily staple food for the adult dog, and that they come in the same two bag sizes, 2.5 kg and 10 kg.
The whole point of a series rather than a single food is that you can choose the protein source that suits your particular dog, without switching brand or concept. If your dog does poorly on one type of meat, you can move it to another recipe in the same series instead of starting over somewhere completely different. Several of the recipes also come as a pâté in 400 g, so you can use the wet variant as a topping, to soften the kibble, or as a meal on its own.
How to choose between the recipes
What primarily distinguishes the variants in the series is the protein source. Nautical Living is built around fish and is therefore an obvious place to start if your dog reacts to the more common types of meat, or if you simply want fish and its natural omega 3 in the daily bowl. Superior Living, Estate Living and Highland Living give you various meat-based alternatives, so you can rotate or find the one your dog eats best and has the best stomach on.
If you're in doubt, the practical way forward is to base your choice on what your dog already tolerates. If it has had problems with a particular protein source, choose a recipe without it. If it has no known problems, you can choose according to what it prefers to eat. If you want to read more thoroughly about how food is matched to age, size and needs, we have gathered it all in the guide which dog food should I choose.
Nautical Living with fish
Nautical Living is the series' fish recipe. It is relevant for two reasons: fish is a good choice for dogs that don't tolerate the more widespread types of meat, and fish naturally contributes omega 3 fatty acids, which are linked to coat and skin, among other things. If you want to stick to the same flavour universe all the way around, there's the corresponding Nautical Living - Kibble and the wet Nautical Pate, so you can combine dry food and pâté without changing the protein source.
If you want to understand why the fish's fatty acids are worth having along, you can read more in the article what is omega 3.
Pâté as a topping or meal
Several of the recipes in the series also come as a pâté in 400 g, including Nautical, Superior, Estate and Highland, as well as Kingdom Living and Wildmoor Living. Pâté is practical for several reasons. It can be used as a wet meal on its own, as a topping on top of the dry food to make the bowl more tempting, or soaked together with the kibble if your dog prefers a softer consistency.
If you buy the same thing often, the 400 g pâté can typically be chosen as a single can or as a pack of six. If you want to dive into the wet part of the range across the series, you'll find the entire selection under pâté landing page, and specific serving ideas in the article 7 ingenious ways to serve pâté to your puppy, which can also be used for adult dogs.
Choose between 2.5 kg and 10 kg
The dry food in the series comes in two bag sizes, 2.5 kg and 10 kg. The small bag is ideal if you want to try out a recipe before committing, or if you have a small dog that eats so little that a large bag risks standing around too long. The 10 kg bag is the practical and typically cheaper solution per kilo for larger dogs or multiple dogs in the household.
A rule of thumb is to choose a bag size that your dog can finish within a reasonable time after opening, so the food stays fresh. If you're in doubt about how much your dog actually needs, so it gets neither too little nor too much, you can use the guide how much should a dog eat.
How to switch to a new food
If you switch your dog from another food to a recipe in the Living series, or switch between two recipes in the series, it should be done gradually. An abrupt change can cause an upset stomach, while a smooth transition over a week or more gives the stomach time to get used to the new food. You mix a little of the new food into the old one and increase the proportion day by day.
A step-by-step approach and typical pitfalls are described in the article how to switch dog food. If your dog already has a sensitive stomach, it is extra important to take the transition at a calm pace, and you can find related reading in delicate or sensitive stomach.
