Hill's Science Plan Healthy Mobility Small & Mini Adult Dry Dog Food with Chicken - 1.5kg

Healthy Mobility Small & Mini Adult Dry Dog Food with Chicken is a complete dry food for adult dogs of small and mini breeds, up to about 10kg, made with chicken. The joint ingredients here are included at a level meant to do something, which is not true of every food that mentions them.

Key Features

• Joints: EPA from fish oil, which has the best evidence of the joint ingredients used, at a level meant to do something.
• Cartilage: Glucosamine and chondroitin.
• Lean Muscle: High-quality protein, because muscle is what supports a joint.
• Antioxidants: Vitamin E and vitamin C.
• Pack Size: A single 1.5kg bag.

What Actually Helps Joints

• Keeping your dog lean is the most effective thing you can do, and it costs nothing. Excess weight both loads the joints and drives inflammation, and in an overweight arthritic dog weight loss often does more than any supplement.
• The EPA in fish oil has the best evidence of the ingredients used here, and Hill's include it at a meaningful level in these recipes rather than as a token amount. Glucosamine and chondroitin are conventional inclusions with weaker evidence.
• Regular moderate exercise beats occasional hard exercise: several steady walks a day suit a stiff dog far better than a long run at the weekend.
• Signs worth a vet visit: slowing on walks, stiffness after rest, trouble with stairs or the car, a changed sitting position, or new grumpiness. Dogs rarely cry about pain, they just do less, and arthritis is treatable and commonly under-treated.

Why Breed Size Changes The Recipe

• A small dog has a far higher metabolic rate per kilo than a large one, so small-breed foods are more energy-dense and the kibble is made small enough to chew comfortably. Large-breed foods go the other way, with controlled energy and added joint support.
• Kibble size is not a detail. A dog that cannot comfortably pick up and chew its food either bolts it whole or eats less than it needs, and both cause problems.
• If your dog sits on a boundary between sizes, go by adult bodyweight rather than by how it looks: small and mini is up to about 10kg, medium about 11 to 25kg, and large breed 25kg and up.

Feeding, Storage And The Range

• How much: start from the chart on the pack by weight, then adjust to what you can feel. You should find the ribs easily under a thin layer of cover. Weigh the food rather than using a cup, and count treats towards the day's total.
• Changing over: move across gradually over about seven days. A sudden switch is the usual cause of a loose stool that then gets blamed on the food.
• Storage here: keep the bag sealed, cool and out of sunlight and use it within about six weeks of opening. UAE heat turns the fats in kibble stale faster than the packaging assumes, and that is the usual reason a pet goes off a food it used to like. Keep it in its own bag rather than tipping it into a bin.
• Who makes it: Hill's was founded by an American vet, Mark Morris Senior, who formulated a kidney diet for a guide dog in the 1940s. They run feeding trials on their recipes, which is why they can say clinically proven where most brands cannot, and the main reason the range costs what it does.
• Science Plan is not Prescription Diet: this is the everyday range for healthy pets. Prescription Diet is the separate therapeutic range for diagnosed conditions, sold on a vet's recommendation. The names overlap confusingly and they are not interchangeable, so if your vet has set a diet, ask them before changing it.

Good To Know

• This listing is the 1.5kg pack.
• Complete dry food. Nothing needs adding to a complete diet.
• Keep fresh water available at all times.
• Store sealed, cool and out of sunlight. Use an opened bag within about six weeks.
• Science Plan is a non-prescription everyday food, not a veterinary therapeutic diet.
• Made by Hill's Pet Nutrition, part of Colgate-Palmolive.