Hill's Science Plan Mature Adult 7+ Light Medium review

Our scoring leaves this one in the Average band, one step under the Good band the typical adult dry food holds. Read that against what the recipe is trying to do. A light diet earns its calorie gap by trading energy for fibre, and crude fibre at 13.2% of dry matter is a big trade. The protein and the meat share drop as a matter of arithmetic. The transparency pillar reads Good, and the calorie figure a slimming plan actually needs is printed plainly on the bag. For a medium senior carrying a little too much, this food does the job it advertises.

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, wheat, chicken and turkey meal (chicken 9%; total poultry 15%), cellulose, pea bran meal, digest, animal fat, dried beet pulp, flaxseed, vegetable oil, minerals, oat bran, fructo-oligosaccharides, pork cartilage (source of chondroitin sulphate), crustacean shell hydrolysate (source of glucosamine). ActivBiome+ Multi Benefit prebiotic blend (0.6%): Oat bran, fructo-oligosaccharides.

Maize and wheat hold the opening places, so cereal carries the structure. The interesting entry is the fourth one. Cellulose is purified plant fibre, effectively indigestible, and it is here to fill a bowl without filling a dog with energy. That makes it a functional choice. It is also the clearest sign on the label that this is a genuine light diet and not simply a smaller scoop of the standard recipe.

Meat arrives as one combined chicken and turkey meal, 9% chicken inside 15% total poultry. Because the meal is already dry, an equal share of fresh meat would carry less protein. Even so, 15% leaves the majority of the recipe to the plant side. Protein finishes at 19.0% of dry matter and fat at 11.3%, that low fat figure being the whole point of the exercise.

Pea bran meal and dried beet pulp add the gentler fibres behind the cellulose, beet pulp in particular being a fermentable fibre that most dogs' guts get along with happily. ActivBiome+, declared at 0.6%, is a mix of oat bran and fructo-oligosaccharides, feeding the bacteria a dog already has rather than introducing new ones.

Joint support comes through pork cartilage for chondroitin and crustacean shell hydrolysate for glucosamine, neither of them dosed in print. Flaxseed is the plant omega source. Animal fat, digest and vegetable oil name no species between them, which is the weakest point on this label for anyone trying to identify exactly what their dog is eating.

The mineral panel is fully dosed per kilo: zinc at 133 mg, iron at 75.7 mg, manganese at 7.8 mg, copper at 7.5 mg, iodine at 1.9 mg and selenium at 0.2 mg. Calcium converts to 0.88% of dry matter, comfortable for an adult or an older dog.

Sold in a single 14kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition would eat about 268 grams a day here, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is a bigger scoop than a standard kibble asks for, which is the calorie control showing up in the measure. Hill's prints 240 grams for the same dog on its own table. A dog being slimmed is best fed to the waistline, whichever figure you start from.