Hill's Science Plan Adult 1+ Oral Care review

Our scale reads this one Average, where the typical bag of adult dry food comes out Good, and the reason is worth spelling out because it is an unusual one. The nutrition on the page is not the difficulty: protein converts to 24.7% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 45.2%, marginally under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. The protein and processing reading marks down cellulose, a purified fibre with nothing to give nutritionally, sitting fourth on the list. It also marks down maize in front of the meat and two entries that name no animal. In short, the thing that lets this kibble wipe a tooth is the thing our scale penalises, and a dog with a dental problem may well be glad of the trade.

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, chicken and turkey meal (chicken 14%; total poultry 22%), broken rice, cellulose, animal fat, pea bran meal, digest, vegetable oil, dried eggs, minerals, flaxseed.

The idea behind this food is mechanical. An ordinary kibble shatters the instant a tooth touches it, which does the tooth no favours at all. Cellulose is here to give the piece a fibrous internal structure so the tooth travels through it and the surface gets wiped on the way. Whether that ever replaces a toothbrush is another question, but it is a real design rather than a line of marketing.

Cellulose itself is worth understanding. It is purified plant fibre that the body cannot digest and that carries no nutrition of its own. It is usually recovered as a byproduct of other industries. Listed on its own account it is nobody's idea of a quality ingredient. In a food built to be chewed through, it has a clear structural job. Lifting declared fibre to 9.7% also keeps the bowl filling for a dog on a measured ration.

The meat side is more forward than the name might lead you to expect. Chicken and turkey meal is second, at 14% chicken and 22% total poultry. Both birds are named and both went in already dried, so little of that 22% is lost in the making. Dried eggs appear further down, an easily digested protein that also marks the recipe out as unsuitable for an egg sensitive dog.

The ingredient order undersells what the analysis shows. Protein converts to 24.7% of dry matter, fat to 15.0% and estimated carbohydrate to 45.2%, just under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, with fibre at 10.5% of dry matter and calcium at 0.72%. Energy is 344 kcal per 100g, on the lighter side for a dry food, which is part of why the same bowl looks bigger.

The two anonymous entries are animal fat and digest. Digest does the palatability work a high fibre kibble needs. Pea bran meal adds more fibre and flaxseed brings the plant omegas. As usual for this brand, every trace mineral is printed with a dose. Zinc is at 106 mg per kilo, iron at 60.7 mg, copper at 6.0 mg, manganese at 6.3 mg, iodine at 1.5 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg.

Sold in 12kg and 2kg bags.

On the standard maintenance estimate of 110 kcal × bodyweight^0.75, a 15kg adult in moderate condition needs around 840 kcal a day. That is about 244 grams of this food. That is a few more grams than a richer kibble would need, simply because each gram carries less energy. Weigh that first portion out and let the waistline take it from there.