Hill's Science Plan Medium Mature Adult 7+ Dry Dog Food with Lamb & Rice - 2.5kg - 14KG

Medium Mature Adult 7+ Dry Dog Food with Lamb & Rice is a complete dry food for dogs of seven and over of medium breeds, roughly 11 to 25kg, made with lamb. It is the everyday Science Plan recipe for this life stage, sold without a prescription.

Key Features

• Heart And Kidneys: Balanced minerals, with phosphorus controlled for an older dog.
• Lean Muscle: Protein kept up, because older dogs lose muscle more readily.
• Skin And Coat: Omega-6 with vitamin E.
• Age Range: Dogs of seven and over.
• Pack Size: A single 2.5kg bag.

About Senior Recipes

• Seven is a marketing threshold rather than a biological one. A seven-year-old cat or a seven-year-old small dog is barely middle-aged; a seven-year-old Great Dane is genuinely old. Use the number as a prompt to look at your pet rather than as a deadline.
• What changes with age is real enough: less lean muscle, less efficient kidneys, stiffer joints, and often a less reliable appetite. Senior recipes respond with controlled minerals, easier digestibility and more palatability.
• The honest limit: no food reverses ageing, and phrases about fighting the effects of ageing are a frame rather than a mechanism. What actually helps an older pet is twice-yearly vet checks with blood and urine tests, staying lean, and catching kidney, thyroid, dental and joint disease early.
• Weight loss in an older pet is never just age. In cats especially it is one of the most reliable early signs of kidney disease, hyperthyroidism or diabetes, and it needs a vet rather than a richer food.

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 2.5kg 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.