Darf Cold Pressed Dog Food: The Complete Irish Guide

By Stephen Dempsey, Shop Manager at Pet Parlour, Terenure, Dublin

We don’t write brand guides for everything on our shelves — there wouldn’t be much point. But Darf earns one. It’s the cold pressed food we reach for most often when a customer wants the benefits of fresh feeding without a freezer full of raw, and it prompts more questions across the counter than almost anything else we stock. So here is everything we find ourselves explaining about Darf, in one place.

What Darf actually is

Darf is a cold pressed dry dog food made in the Netherlands, and the headline number tells you most of what you need to know: 3.2kg of fresh raw meat goes into every kilo of finished food. That is an unusually high fresh-meat input for a dry food, and it’s why we describe Darf as one of the most nutritionally dense dry options on the market rather than as “kibble”. If cold pressing is new to you, our introduction to cold pressed dog food covers the method in full — the short version follows.

Cold pressed in sixty seconds

Ordinary kibble is extruded — cooked at high temperatures that cost the ingredients a good deal of their nutritional value. Cold pressing instead presses the mixed ingredients into pellets under pressure at far lower temperatures, between roughly 45 and 80°C. More of the nutrition survives the process, and the pellets behave differently in the dog: cold pressed food breaks down gently in the stomach rather than swelling the way extruded kibble can. It’s the closest a dry food gets to fresh feeding, which is why so many of our raw-feeding customers keep a bag of Darf for holidays, travel and busy weeks.

The Darf range we stock

Every recipe below carries that same 3.2kg fresh-meat-per-kilo foundation. The differences are the proteins — and that’s what decides which bag suits which dog.

• Original

  Chicken, beef, lamb and goat. The all-rounder, and the right starting point for most dogs.

  All-rounder

• Beef

  Single-source beef for dogs that do best on one protein.

  Single sourceSensitive

• Lamb

  Single-source lamb — the other single-protein sensitive choice.

  Single sourceSensitive

• Turkey

  Turkey with beef — a gentler, poultry-led recipe.

  Gentle

• Salmon

  Salmon with lamb. Fish-led, a favourite for skin and coat.

  Skin & coat

• Wild

  Built on 60% venison — the highest-game recipe in the range.

  60% venison

• Light

  The Original recipe at just 7.1% fat, for dogs watching their waistline.

  Low fat

• Insect

  Insect and fish protein — an ultra-hypoallergenic option for dogs that react to common meats.

  Hypoallergenic

Which Darf for which dog?

This is the conversation we have across the counter every week, so here’s the shorthand:

• Healthy adult, no sensitivities: start with Original.
• Known or suspected protein intolerance: go single-source with Beef or Lamb, so you know exactly what’s in the bowl.
• Itchy skin or a dull coat: Salmon is usually our first suggestion.
• Carrying a bit too much condition: Light gives you the same recipe with the fat pared right back.
• Reacts to everything: Insect is one of the most useful foods we’ve ever put on the shelf, because almost no dog has met insect protein before.

None of this replaces knowing your own dog, and if you’re unsure, ask us — that’s rather the point of an independent shop.

Feeding Darf: less than you’d think

Because cold pressed food is dense rather than puffed, daily portions are smaller than the equivalent kibble — a common mistake in the first week is feeding the old kibble quantity and wondering why the dog is leaving some behind. Follow the feeding chart on the pack for your dog’s weight, and treat it as a starting point to adjust by body condition. Transition gradually over seven to ten days, increasing the Darf and decreasing the old food a little each day, and always have fresh water down.

Try a sample bag first

Most Darf recipes are available in 500g sample bags, and that’s genuinely how we’d suggest starting — a small bag, a slow transition, and see how your dog gets on before committing to a 14kg sack. You’ll find the samples listed as size options on each product page, and the full cold pressed range on our cold pressed dog food page.

Pet Parlour — Ireland’s independent specialists in raw, cold pressed and premium pet food. Free delivery across Ireland and Northern Ireland on orders over €49.