Hill's Prescription Diet Metabolic + Mobility Mini Dry Dog Food review

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin, meat and animal derivatives (chicken 6%), vegetable protein extracts, seeds, vegetables, oils and fats (fish oil 2.3%), minerals, molluscs and crustaceans.

The ingredients are the small-dog counterpart of the standard bag, with one change of order: meat and animal derivatives, chicken at 6%, comes ahead of the vegetable protein extracts here. Cereals and derivatives of vegetable origin still lead, and behind them come seeds, then vegetables, oils and fats, minerals, and the molluscs and crustaceans entry.

Fish oil is broken out of the fats at 2.3%, and the shellfish entry is the kind of inclusion that carries glucosamine into a joint recipe. Between them they set fish and shellfish alongside chicken in a small dog's daily bowl, which is the practical thing to check if either has caused your dog trouble before.

Declared figures are 26.5% protein, 12.9% fat, 14.4% crude fibre and 5.4% ash, converting to 28.8%, 14.0%, 15.7% and 5.9% of dry matter, with the carbohydrate estimate at 35.6% of dry matter. Energy reads 316 kcal per 100g. Plenty of fibre and moderate energy is the intended shape of a food built to hold weight down, so neither figure is a shortfall to read into.

The trace minerals are printed with doses beside them: iron 75.6mg, iodine 1.9mg, copper 7.5mg, manganese 7.8mg, zinc 132mg and selenium 0.2mg. A natural antioxidant sits at the foot of the panel.

How much of it a small dog gets is a calculation your practice makes from a target weight and revisits as that weight moves, which makes the table on the pack background reading. Whether a combined approach suits your dog is theirs to answer too, and they have the history to answer it with.

It comes in 1kg and 3kg bags.