Hill's Prescription Diet

Hill's Prescription Diet r/d Dog Food review

Name: Hill's Prescription Diet Hill's Prescription Diet r/d Dog Food
Brand: Hill's Prescription Diet

We don't put a score on this food. It is a veterinary diet, formulated for a diagnosed condition and meant to be fed on a vet's advice. Your vet has seen your dog and we have not, so a number from us could only pull you towards their advice or away from it, and neither of those is ours to do. What follows is what the label declares, what the analysis works out at, and where to buy it, with no judgement attached to any of it.

In the Hill's Prescription Diet range this is r/d, a chicken-based dry diet. The maker offers it for weight reduction in dogs whose slimming is being supervised by a vet.

DryAdult

Where to buy: coming soon

Live retailer pricing is coming soon. Once we have prices from UK retailers, the best price, cost per day and where to buy will appear here.

The Details

Dog fit

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Chicken

What's in it

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and animal derivatives (chicken 12%), derivatives of vegetable origin, cereals, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, minerals, seeds.

Named ingredients

Meat and animal derivatives (chicken 12%), derivatives of vegetable origin, cereals, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, minerals, seeds.

Nutritional additives

Nutritional additives: 3b103 (Iron) 60.4mg, 3b202 (Iodine) 1.5mg, 3b405 (Copper) 6.0mg, 3b502 (Manganese) 6.3mg, 3b603 (Zinc) 106mg, 3b801 (Selenium) 0.1mg, with natural antioxidant. Metabolisable energy: 3,116 kcal/kg.

What's on the label

Every entry near the top of this label names a category rather than a species. Meat and animal derivatives lead, with chicken pinned at 12% inside that heading, and then come derivatives of vegetable origin, cereals and vegetable protein extracts, with oils and fats, minerals and seeds closing the list. Chicken is the only animal the pack names anywhere.

Wording of that sort cannot be read as an exclusion list. It can cover more than one animal, it leaves the grain unidentified, and what sits behind it may be adjusted between production runs without the printed words changing. If your dog is being looked at for a food reaction alongside the weight work, that is a point to raise at the appointment.

Crude fibre is the figure this recipe is arranged around: 12.2% as declared, which converts to 13.3% of dry matter. Fat is held down to 10.4%, or 11.3% once moisture is taken out, while protein reads 31.1% and works out at 33.8% of dry matter. Loading fibre and trimming fat is simply how a reducing diet gets assembled, so that balance is a design decision rather than something missing.

The carbohydrate estimate comes out at 35.6% of dry matter and energy is 312 kcal per 100g, which the pack also states as 3,116 kcal per kilogram. Feeding is set out by bodyweight, 20 grams a day at 1kg, 125 grams at 10kg, 210 grams at 20kg and 420 grams at 50kg. On a weight-loss plan, the figure that counts is the one written down at the practice.

The trace mineral panel is printed with a dose beside each entry, iron at 60.4mg, iodine at 1.5mg, copper at 6.0mg, manganese at 6.3mg, zinc at 106mg and selenium at 0.1mg. Closing the panel is a natural antioxidant.

Price and where to buy

It comes in 4kg and 10kg bags, at £5.53 a kilo. Working from the label's guide, a 15kg dog would eat around 269 grams a day, putting the daily rate at about £1.49 on that basis.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

311.8 kcal/100g

Protein

31.1%

Fat

10.4%

Fibre

12.2%

Ash

5.5%

Dry weight

Protein

33.8%

Fat

11.3%

Fibre

13.3%

Ash

Carbs

35.6%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

39.5%

Carbs

53.2%

Oils

3.5%

Other

3.8%

Pricing & size