Hill's Prescription Diet Derm Complete Puppy Dry Dog Food Original review

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, eggs and egg derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, minerals, meat and animal derivatives, seeds, derivatives of vegetable origin. Carbohydrate source: Broken rice. Protein sources: Dried whole eggs, rice protein concentrate.

The declared list is shorter than the adult recipe and stays in categories: cereals, eggs and egg derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, minerals, meat and animal derivatives, seeds and derivatives of vegetable origin. Broken rice is the single carbohydrate source Hill's names, and the protein is given as dried whole eggs with rice protein concentrate.

No fish oil is itemised on this one, so the fat stays behind the oils and fats heading, and the animal entry is once more the unnamed meat and animal derivatives. On a pup being worked through an exclusion plan those two lines are the ones to raise with the practice, since neither commits to a species.

Protein is declared at 23.4% and converts to 25.4% of dry matter, with fat at 16.2% as fed and 17.6% dry. Ash reads 7.1%, crude fibre 1.3%, the carbohydrate estimate 47.9% of dry matter, and energy 372 kcal per 100g. Growth diets are written to their own targets and this one is written to Hill's, so the reading that counts is the one the vet takes.

One figure buyers of a growth food usually go looking for is absent here. Calcium does not appear anywhere in the declared analysis, so how much is in the bag is a question for Hill's or for your practice rather than something the packet answers.

The dosed minerals are iron at 93.0mg, iodine at 4.1mg, copper at 10.9mg, manganese at 9.6mg and zinc at 144mg, finished with a natural antioxidant. Feeding opens at 55 grams a day for a 1kg pup, reaches 315 grams at 10kg and ends at 535 grams for a 20kg dog. A growing dog's portion is normally reset by the vet as the weight climbs.

Two bag sizes are listed, 1.5kg and 12kg, at £7.70 a kilo. Where a 15kg dog falls on the guide, roughly 226 grams a day, that lands at £1.74 a day.