Hill's Prescription Diet u/d Wet Dog Food Original review

Ingredients, as declared: Derivatives of vegetable origin, eggs and egg derivatives, oils and fats, meat and animal derivatives, cereals, various sugars, minerals, seeds. Urine alkalising substances: Calcium carbonate (3.9 g/kg), Potassium citrate (2.0 g/kg), tetrasodium diphosphate (0.7 g/kg). Protein sources: Dried eggs, pork liver.

The ordering here is nothing like an everyday food. Derivatives of vegetable origin come first, eggs and egg derivatives second and oils and fats third, with meat and animal derivatives only fourth, ahead of cereals, various sugars, minerals and seeds. Hill's then names the protein sources outright: dried eggs and pork liver. Pork is the single species identified on the pack.

Protein is meant to be scarce in a food of this type and the analysis follows suit: 4.3% as declared, which is 13.7% of dry matter. Fat does the work instead at 8.5%, or 27.1% of the dry matter, and the carbohydrate estimate is 16.4% as fed and 52.0% once the water comes out, with energy at 145 kcal per 100g. Those readings are the intended shape of a restricted-protein diet rather than an oversight, and whether your dog needs that shape at all is a question for the vet who prescribed it.

Three urine alkalising substances are declared with their doses printed: calcium carbonate at 3.9 g/kg, potassium citrate at 2.0 g/kg and tetrasodium diphosphate at 0.7 g/kg. Publishing those figures tells you the mineral side is being steered on purpose rather than left to whatever the ingredients happen to bring with them.

Various sugars appear on the list as well. In a recipe holding protein this far back, sugars are there to carry energy and keep the food appetising. That counts for a lot when a dog has to stay on the same diet for months.

Declared calcium works out at 0.67% of dry matter, and the trace minerals are itemised with figures beside them, iron 28.3mg, iodine 0.8mg, copper 3.3mg, manganese 14.0mg, zinc 64.5mg and selenium 0.02mg. Crude fibre is slight at 0.8%, or 2.7% of dry matter. The label feeds by bodyweight from 113 grams a day at 2kg to 395 grams at 10kg and 920 grams at 40kg, though the portion that suits your dog belongs on the vet's instructions.

It is sold in 370g packs. On the label's guide a 15kg dog would be eating in the region of 581 grams a day.