Hill's Science Plan Large Breed Adult Dog Food with Lamb and Rice review

How the recipe is stacked is what puts distance between the middle of the shelf and this food. Broken rice at 20%, maize, wheat and soybean meal all sit ahead of the 9% lamb meal, and maize protein meal adds more plant protein below them. The analysis lands at 23.2% protein and an estimated 54.2% carbohydrate on a dry matter basis. That places it in our Average band with the typical adult dry food a step up in our Good band. Protein and processing reads Poor for the same reason, while nutritional balance reads Average and transparency Good, because the lamb, the rice and the joint sources are all named rather than hidden. For a large adult dog who has eaten cereal based food happily for years, none of that changes what goes in the bowl tonight.

Ingredients, as declared: with LAMB & RICE: Broken rice (20%), maize, wheat, soybean meal, lamb meal (9%), animal fat, maize protein meal, digest, soybean oil, flaxseed, minerals, oat bran, vitamins, fructo-oligosaccharides, trace elements, pork cartilage (source of chondroitin sulphate), crustacean shell hydrolysate (source of glucosamine) and beta-carotene. With a natural antioxidant (mixed tocopherols).

Broken rice at 20% opens the list, and it is exactly what the name suggests, the small fragments left when rice is milled. Cooked, it is easy on most dogs. Maize follows, then wheat. Wheat is worth a careful reader's attention, since it is the cereal that comes up most when a dog cannot handle grain. Plenty of dogs eat it for years without a flicker of trouble, but if yours has form with itchy skin on cereal foods, that is the line to look at.

Soybean meal in fourth place and maize protein meal further down are both plant proteins, and they matter to how the analysis reads. The 23.2% protein of dry matter is a joint effort between them and the 9% lamb meal rather than a measure of the meat alone. The lamb meal itself is a good, concentrated form of the meat, dried before it goes in, so what it contributes is not lost again in the oven.

The large breed brief is served at the bottom of the list. Chondroitin sulphate comes from the pork cartilage and glucosamine from the crustacean shell hydrolysate, the two supplements most owners reach for when a heavy dog's joints begin to wear. Neither is dosed in print, so the quantity is unknown. Having them on the list at all is a real nod to the audience.

Animal fat and digest go unnamed, while soybean oil at least says what it is. Digest is hydrolysed animal tissue used to make the kibble palatable, and flaxseed adds plant omega 3 behind it. Beta carotene and mixed tocopherols close things out. The tocopherols are a natural vitamin E preservative, and that is a small point in the recipe's favour.

Fibre is low at 1.4% of dry matter and calcium works out at 0.8% of dry matter, a sensible adult level for a big frame. Energy comes in at 370 kcal per 100 grams, above the 357 kcal of a typical adult dry food, so portions for a large dog are worth putting on the scales.

£4.29 a kilo, sold in a 14kg bag.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition on the standard maintenance estimate of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75): that is about 227 grams, or £0.97 a day. Scale it up for a large breed adult, and let the ribs tell you when the portion is right.