Hill's Science Plan Adult 1-6 Light Medium review

The analysis here is genuinely tidy for a light diet. Protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Good, and so does the food overall, level with a typical adult dry food. Protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 41.9%, against 46.2% carbohydrate for a typical adult dry food, with energy pulled down to 313 kcal per 100g.

The ingredient list holds the reading down, and the analysis has less to do with it. Maize and wheat sit high, the added fat and the palatant are unnamed, and a purified fibre does much of the filling. Meat leading the list is a real point in its favour. For a medium sized dog carrying a bit too much, this is a sensible everyday bowl.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken and turkey meal (chicken 12%; total poultry 19%), maize, pea bran meal, wheat, maize protein meal, digest, cellulose, dried beet pulp, animal fat, vegetable oil, minerals, flaxseed, oat bran, fructo-oligosaccharides. ActivBiome+ Multi Benefit prebiotic blend (0.6%): Oat bran, fructo-oligosaccharides.

Chicken and turkey meal in first place is the headline, with chicken declared at 12% and total poultry at 19%. Meal means the meat went in dried and ground. The 19% on the label is therefore protein and not water, and it puts far more into the finished kibble than 19% of fresh meat could.

Behind the meat come maize in second place and wheat in fourth, and maize protein meal adds more plant protein further on. Maize is a perfectly digestible carbohydrate once cooked. Wheat carries more intolerance history than any other grain. Note it if yours has form.

Pea bran meal and cellulose are the fibre pair, and they are what make this a light diet. Pea bran is the fibrous outer layer of the pea, while cellulose is purified plant fibre that passes through more or less untouched, filling a dog up for almost no calories. Together they push crude fibre to 13.5% of dry matter, far above a standard adult kibble, which is the intended effect rather than an accident.

Two entries give no animal at all: the animal fat and the digest. Digest is a palatant, a broth of broken down protein sprayed onto the kibble to make it taste of something, and it earns its place with fussy dogs. Both mean this recipe cannot be used to rule an individual protein in or out.

The analysis is the strongest argument for this food. Protein reaches 27.2% of dry matter and fat 11.6%, with carbohydrate at 41.9% against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food, and energy at 313 kcal per 100g against 357. Calcium works out at 0.92% of dry matter, a sensible adult level.

The declared blend, ActivBiome+ at 0.6%, is oat bran with fructo-oligosaccharides. Both are prebiotics, feeding the gut's resident bacteria, and dried beet pulp works the same way behind them. Flaxseed is the plant omega 3 source. Mineral doses are printed at zinc 132 mg, iron 75.4 mg, copper 7.4 mg, manganese 7.8 mg, iodine 1.9 mg and selenium 0.2 mg per kilo, preserved with a natural antioxidant.

Sold in 2.5 kg and 14 kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition would eat about 269 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own chart is more restrained, asking 240 grams for a 15kg dog and 405 grams for a 30kg one. Restraint is rather the point of a weight control diet.