Review: Hill's Ideal Balance Dog Food

We received a free sample of Hill's Ideal Balance to review.

I will say, we are not big fans of Hill's pet foods but we went in to this with an open mind.  Our dog had no issue eating this food, we did mix with her existing food for the first few days to prevent any digestive upset.  I will add, my dog is NOT picky by any means

Here are the ingredients for the food we sampled:

Chicken, Brown Rice, Brewers Rice, Cracked Pearled Barley, Chicken Meal, Whole Grain Oats, Chicken Fat, Pea Protein Concentrate, Flaxseed, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Lactic Acid, Vegetable & fruit blend (Green Peas, Apples, Cranberries, Carrots, Broccoli), Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Beta-Carotene, Natural Flavors.

The biggest downfalls for us would be that this is a plant based food with a moderate amount of protein coming from meat.  Chicken is the first ingredient but once cooked the chicken looses most of it's water content reducing the meat to just a fraction of the original weight.

Another issue is that the majority of the calories are coming from fat rather than from protein and we would much rather our dog get her calories from protein rather than fat.

Based on reading the ingredient label alone we would have to NOT recommend this food as there are much higher quality foods out there for your pet.  However, this is higher quality than some foods out there so if you are debating between those foods and this one pick this food.










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