Hill's Science Plan Adult 1+ Healthy Mobility Medium review

We land this in the Average band; measured the same way, the typical adult dry food comes out Good. The reasons sit in plain sight on the ingredients list, where two cereals stand ahead of a total poultry declaration of 11% and the carbohydrate estimate runs above what a dry food usually shows. The transparency pillar reads Good, and that is the part of the assessment rewarding the printed doses and the named percentages. Read the band as a comment on the recipe's shape, not as a reason to doubt that a stiffening medium dog will get along with it.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, maize, chicken and turkey meal (chicken 7%; total poultry 11%), digest, animal fat, maize protein meal, flaxseed, fish oil (1.8%), vegetable oil, minerals, pea bran meal.

This is a cereal based kibble and the label makes no attempt to pretend otherwise. Wheat and maize take the first two places, with chicken and turkey meal third at 7% chicken and 11% total poultry. The water comes out of a meal before it is mixed in, so most of that 11% arrives in the bowl intact. It is still a small animal share.

Fish oil at 1.8% is the ingredient the name leans on. Oily fish supply the long chain omega 3s that owners most often turn to when a dog's movement is the worry, and having the percentage printed rather than implied is a good sign. Flaxseed comes just in front of it. That is the plant form, and a dog converts it across slowly. What is not on the list is a printed glucosamine or chondroitin figure, so judge the recipe on its oils.

Digest appears fourth, higher than on most labels, with animal fat behind it. Digest is the coating that gives a leaner kibble the smell that gets it eaten, and a recipe this restrained needs that help. Neither it nor the animal fat names a species. That is the honest limit here if you are trying to keep a dog clear of one particular animal, and for anyone avoiding fish the fish oil settles the question.

Maize protein meal props up the protein figure and pea bran meal at the end supplies most of the fibre, which converts to 2.6% of dry matter. Protein itself converts to 21.4% of dry matter and fat to 14.2%, gentle numbers that suit a dog whose exercise has eased off a little. Calcium works out at 0.67% of dry matter, an ordinary adult figure.

Every added trace mineral carries a dose: zinc at 137 mg per kilo, iron at 78.3 mg, manganese at 8.1 mg, copper at 7.7 mg, iodine at 1.9 mg and selenium at 0.2 mg. The preservative on this label is a natural antioxidant. Small print of that quality is one of the more likeable habits of the brand.

Sold in 14kg and 2.5kg bags.

For portioning, the standard maintenance estimate of 110 kcal × bodyweight^0.75 gives a 15kg adult in moderate condition around 840 kcal a day, which is about 228 grams of this recipe. The label's own table asks 235 grams for a dog of that weight, and the waistline can settle the last few grams.