Hill's Prescription Diet Hills Prescription Diet Metabolic Weight Management review

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals (rice 4%), derivatives of vegetable origin, meat and animal derivatives (lamb 4%), vegetable protein extracts, vegetables, oils and fats, seeds, minerals.

Cereals lead, with rice named inside them at 4%, and the meat entry arrives third as meat and animal derivatives with lamb declared at 4%. Vegetable protein extracts and vegetables come next, with oils and fats, seeds and minerals to finish. Lamb is the only species printed on the whole label, so every other input sits behind a heading.

Nothing is hydrolysed here, and no blend or palatant is named. Whatever keeps the kibble appealing to a dog eating less than it would like is not something the bag spells out.

Crude fibre is declared at 13.0%, which is 14.3% of dry matter, and that bulk is the mechanism a reducing kibble leans on. Protein converts to 27.9% and fat to 12.3%, with carbohydrate estimated at 39.3% and calcium at 1.02%. Fewer calories per mouthful is the intention behind those numbers rather than an oversight in the formulation.

Energy is 311 kcal per 100g, and the label puts metabolisable energy at 3,110 kcal per kilogram. The trace minerals are dosed one by one, manganese at 117mg, zinc at 136mg, iron at 77.4mg, copper at 7.6mg, iodine at 1.9mg and selenium at 0.2mg, with a natural antioxidant named at the end.

The feeding guide reads 98 grams a day at 1kg, 447 grams at 10kg, 582 grams at 20kg and 922 grams at 50kg. The judgement about whether it suits your dog stays with the vet who wrote the recommendation, and so does the portion, since a reducing diet is normally weighed against a target rather than a table.

The bag comes in one size, 12kg.