Hill's Science Plan Perfect Weight & Active Mobility Small & Mini Dry Dog Food Chicken review

What our scoring rewards and what it marks down are both easy to point at here, and they cancel out at the Good band, the same one the median adult dry food occupies. On the credit side the analysis is genuinely lean. Protein converts to 27.7% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 37.8%, where adult dry food runs at 46.2%, while energy comes in at 321 kcal per 100g against a category median of 357.

Pulling the other way is a list where wheat and maize gluten meal appear early and where a few entries name no animal, so the ingredients read more ordinary than the analysis does. All four pillars settle on Good. For a small dog who needs the calories taken out without the bowl looking empty, that is a perfectly good place to land.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken and turkey meal (chicken 8%; total poultry 13%), wheat, maize gluten meal, pea bran meal, maize, digest, dried tomato pomace, cellulose, dried beet pulp, flaxseed, coconut oil, vegetable oil, fish oil (1.9%), minerals, animal fat, dried carrots, pork cartilage (source of chondroitin sulphate), crustacean shell hydrolysate (source of glucosamine).

The poultry is declared as a combined chicken and turkey meal at 13% in total, with chicken pinned at 8%. Meal is dried before it goes in, so that figure carries through to the bowl and does not shrink in the oven. It is still a smaller declared share than you would want if the birds were the only protein in the recipe. They are not, which is why maize gluten meal appears where it does.

Maize gluten meal is the entry to understand properly. It is a concentrated plant protein taken from maize processing, and it lifts the printed protein figure without adding any more meat. Dogs handle it less easily than they handle animal protein. On a small dog with no history of sensitivity it passes without incident. On one whose skin flares at every change of food it is the ingredient to keep in mind.

Fibre is doing the heavy lifting. At 13.3% as fed, which converts to 14.5% of dry matter, this carries far more than an everyday kibble, and it is built from pea bran meal, dried tomato pomace, dried beet pulp and cellulose. Cellulose is a purified fibre powder and not a whole food. On a list it is nothing to admire, and it is precisely what allows a smaller ration to satisfy a hungry little dog.

For the mobility side, pork cartilage supplies the chondroitin and a crustacean shell hydrolysate supplies the glucosamine, both named on the label. Fish oil at 1.9% adds omega 3 alongside them. No dose is printed for either joint ingredient, so read them as everyday support. Coconut oil and flaxseed are named too, while vegetable oil and animal fat are not, and digest is the flavour layer that keeps a lean recipe interesting to a small dog with opinions.

The mineral panel is fully declared, with zinc at 126 mg, iron at 72 mg, copper at 7.1 mg and iodine at 1.8 mg in each kilogram of food. Calcium comes out at 0.91% of dry matter, a settled adult level, and dried carrots close the list with a little vitamin A and antioxidant support.

£4.83 a kilo, sold in a 1.5 kg bag.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, an assumed 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate) works out at about 262 grams and £1.26 a day. The label's own table asks 235 grams for a dog of that weight, a little under the estimate. For a small dog on a diet, the target weight your vet sets should decide the daily scoop.