Hill's Science Plan Perfect Digestion Adult Dry Cat Food with Chicken & Brown Rice - 300g - 1.5KG

Perfect Digestion Adult Dry Cat Food with Chicken & Brown Rice is a complete dry food for adult cats, made with chicken. The prebiotic blend is the point of this recipe, and Hill's have trial data behind the claim.

Key Features

• ActivBiome+: Hill's prebiotic fibre blend, which they say produces firmer, more regular stools within about a week.
• Microbiome: Aimed at the balance of gut bacteria rather than at adding live cultures.
• Heart And Kidneys: Taurine and balanced minerals.
• Age Range: Adult cats.
• Pack Size: A single 300g bag.

About ActivBiome+

• ActivBiome+ is Hill's name for a blend of prebiotic fibres chosen to feed the useful bacteria a pet already has, rather than adding live bacteria. Hill's say it produces firmer, more regular stools within about a week, and that claim comes from their own trials.
• The gut microbiome is a genuinely active area of research rather than pure marketing, and prebiotic fibre is one of the better-supported dietary levers. Expect a difference in stool quality rather than a transformation in your pet.
• Where it earns its place is a pet whose stools are soft or inconsistent on an otherwise fine diet. It is not a treatment for diarrhoea.
• Persistent diarrhoea, blood or mucus in the stool, vomiting or a pet that is flat needs a vet, not a food change. In a puppy or kitten treat gut upset as urgent, because they dehydrate fast.

Why Cat Food Looks Like This

• Cats are obligate carnivores: they cannot make enough taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A or vitamin D for themselves and have to take them in ready-made from food. That is why a complete cat food is not just a dog food with a different picture on the bag, and why cats should never be fed a vegetarian diet.
• Taurine is the one most people have heard of. Without enough of it cats develop heart muscle disease and go blind, which is why it appears on the front of every bag. Any complete cat food supplies enough, so this is a reassurance rather than a differentiator.
• The balanced minerals Hill's mention are about keeping magnesium, phosphorus and calcium in proportion rather than simply low, because both too much and too little cause problems.

Cats And Water

• Cats evolved to get most of their water from prey and have a weak thirst drive, so a cat on dry food alone often runs mildly short of water. That matters for the urinary tract and the kidneys, which are the two things most likely to shorten a cat's life.
• Practical fixes: more bowls than you think you need, away from the food and the litter tray; a wide shallow bowl so the whiskers stay dry; and a fountain, since many cats drink more from moving water. Adding some wet food to the day is the single most effective change.
• In UAE heat and air conditioning, check the bowls twice a day. Cats drink less from water that has sat out and gone warm and dusty.

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 300g 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.