Hill's Science Plan Adult 1+ Sensitive Stomach & Skin Small & Mini review

The reading behind this page is our Good band, the same band the typical adult dry food occupies. Everything driving that sits on the front of the ingredient list: 15% declared poultry, a run of cereals around and behind it, protein of 24.5% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate of 52.9%. Take it as a description of a cereal based small breed kibble, not as a health warning. Fed to the dog it names, a small adult who needs an even keel, it does what the bag says it will.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken and turkey meal (chicken 9%; total poultry 15%), broken rice, maize, brown rice, maize protein meal, barley, oats, animal fat, digest, vegetable oil, dried beet pulp (2.5%), flaxseed, minerals, dried eggs.

The list opens on chicken and turkey meal, declared as 9% chicken inside 15% total poultry. A meal has had its water taken out by the time it reaches the mix, so that figure survives into the finished biscuit. Protein comes out at 24.5% of dry matter and fat at 15.4%, a comfortable middle for an adult food.

Broken rice, maize, brown rice, barley and oats all sit behind the meat, and maize protein meal adds plant protein to the total. Broken rice is milled rice fragments and nothing more mysterious, cooked down soft, and it is a familiar choice for a dog whose digestion objects to richer things. Oats and barley bring fibre along, and barley carries gluten, worth a thought if you have been avoiding it elsewhere in the house.

The digestive and coat side of the label is handled quietly. Beet pulp at 2.5% is the fibre most often used to settle a loose stool, and flaxseed brings plant omega 3 for the skin. Dried eggs come last of all, a small and highly usable protein.

Animal fat, digest and vegetable oil are the vague entries. Digest is hydrolysed animal tissue used as a palatant, and on a small breed food that has a real purpose. A little dog skipping meals is a bigger problem than a big one leaving a bowl. It does mean, though, that no single species can be traced the whole way through this recipe.

Trace minerals are dosed on the label: zinc at 134 mg, iron at 76.4 mg, manganese at 7.9 mg, copper at 7.5 mg, iodine at 1.9 mg and selenium at 0.2 mg per kilo. Printed doses beat an unqualified line about minerals every time, and the zinc figure in particular is doing skin work.

Sold in 1.5kg, 3kg and 6kg bags.

For a rough sense of the portion, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need around 227 grams a day on a maintenance estimate of 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label asks 170 grams a day for a 10kg dog, and most dogs eating this food are smaller than the 15kg example.