Hill's Science Plan

Hill's Science Plan is the everyday range from Hill's Pet Nutrition, a company that exists because of one dog. In 1939 an American vet, Mark Morris Senior, formulated a kidney diet for a guide dog called Buddy. That recipe started the therapeutic pet food category, and it is why Hill's still sells through vets as well as shops. Hill's employ vets and nutritionists and 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. Hill's is now part of Colgate-Palmolive.

Science Plan Is Not Prescription Diet

• This is the single most useful thing to understand before you buy. Science Plan is the everyday range for healthy pets, sold without a prescription, and it is what this collection holds. Prescription Diet is Hill's separate therapeutic range for diagnosed conditions, sold on a vet's recommendation.
• The names overlap confusingly and the two are not interchangeable. A Science Plan food named for a body system supports a healthy pet; it does not treat a disease of that system. Urinary Health will not unblock a cat, Healthy Mobility will not treat arthritis, and Sensitive Stomach & Skin will not resolve a diagnosed allergy.
• If your vet has set a diet, stay on it and ask them before changing. If your pet has symptoms, see your vet rather than changing food and waiting. Hoping a food will fix something is where the real harm happens.

The Dog Range

• Puppy: Small & Mini, Medium and Large Breed dry food with DHA for brain and eye development, plus puppy stew, cans and mousse. Large Breed puppy is a genuinely different recipe, with controlled calcium and energy to slow the growth rate and protect developing joints.
• Adult: Small & Mini, Medium and Large Breed with chicken or lamb & rice, plus wet food in beef, chicken and turkey.
• Senior: Mature Adult 7+ and Senior Vitality. Worth knowing that there is no legal definition of a senior pet food, so the useful question is what a given recipe actually changes.
• Specialities: Perfect Weight, Perfect Weight & Active Mobility, Perfect Digestion with ActivBiome+, Sensitive Stomach & Skin, Healthy Mobility, Hypoallergenic, and Performance for hard-working dogs.

The Cat Range

• Kitten: dry food with chicken, tuna or salmon, Sterilised Kitten, kitten pouches and Kitten & Mother mousse. Kitten food also suits pregnant and nursing cats.
• Adult: dry food with chicken, salmon, lamb or tuna, and pouches in chicken, turkey, beef and ocean fish.
• Sterilised Cat: lower fat with L-carnitine and controlled minerals, in dry food and pouches. Neutering lowers a cat's energy requirement by roughly a fifth while often increasing appetite, which is why so many cats gain weight in the year after the operation.
• Senior and specialities: Mature Adult 7+, Senior Vitality, Perfect Weight, Perfect Digestion, Sensitive Stomach & Skin, Urinary Health, Hairball & Perfect Coat, Oral Care, and Hypoallergenic with egg and insect protein.

Choosing The Right One

• Dogs, by expected adult weight: Small & Mini up to 10kg, Medium 11 to 25kg, Large Breed over 25kg. Kibble size and the joint and calcium levels differ, so size band matters more than most owners expect, particularly in puppies.
• Life stage first, then flavour. The life stage changes the nutrition; the flavour mostly changes whether your pet eats it. If a pet does well on a recipe, there is no benefit in rotating.
• Wet, dry, or both. Both are complete, so either works alone. Dry is cheaper per calorie and easier to measure; wet carries far more water, which genuinely matters for cats. If you feed both, count both halves towards the daily total rather than treating the wet as an extra.
• Science Plan or Science Diet? Same range. Hill's sells it as Science Plan in Europe and the Middle East and as Science Diet in the Americas, with recipes formulated for each market.

Feeding And Storage Here

• 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: seven days, about a quarter new food on days one and two, half on three and four, three quarters on five and six, all of it by day seven. A sudden switch is the usual cause of a loose stool that then gets blamed on the food.
• Storage: keep dry food sealed, cool and out of sunlight and use an opened bag within about six weeks. 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. Refrigerate opened wet food, use it within about two days and serve it at room temperature.
• Water: fresh water always available, and check the bowls twice a day in UAE heat. Cats drink less from water that has sat out and gone warm.

Not sure which recipe or which size band suits your pet? Message us and we will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is to ask your vet instead.