Hill's Science Plan Large Breed Puppy Dry Dog Food with Chicken - 800g - 2.5KG

Large Breed Puppy Dry Dog Food with Chicken is a complete dry food for growing puppies of large breeds, over about 25kg when grown, made with chicken. For a large breed puppy this is the one food decision that can change your dog's joints for life, so it is worth getting right.

Key Features

• Controlled Calcium: The single most important feature here, because growing too fast or on too much calcium is linked to hip, elbow and bone problems in big dogs.
• Brain And Eyes: DHA from fish oil.
• Lean Muscle: High-quality protein without excess energy.
• For: Puppies that will finish over about 25kg, fed until around 18 months.
• Pack Size: A single 800g bag.

Why Large Breed Puppies Are Different

• This is the one area where getting the food right genuinely changes a dog's long-term health. A large breed puppy grows for eighteen months or more, and growing too fast, or on too much calcium, is strongly associated with hip and elbow problems and other developmental bone disease.
• So a large breed growth food deliberately controls calcium and energy. Hill's do this properly, and it is the main reason to choose a large breed recipe over a general puppy food for a dog that will finish over about 25kg.
• Two things to avoid: do not add any calcium, bone meal or mineral supplement to a growth food, and do not free-feed. Both undo exactly what the recipe is for.
• Go easy on exercise while the joints are forming. Short, frequent, self-paced play rather than long runs, stairs or jumping, until your vet says the growth plates have closed.

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 800g 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.