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Hill's Science Diet Hill's Science Diet Adult Small Bites Chicken & Barley Recipe Dog Food package official product image via Amazon

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Hill's Science Diet Adult Small Bites Chicken & Barley Recipe Dog Food

Dry food · adult dogs

A feeding-trial-validated, chicken-first dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 75% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 33% (you feed fewer cups) — $1.47 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-11

Your dogupdates every number on this page
40 lb

Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →

The evidence

The Verified Label

Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 494 dry foods we've verified.

Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № HILL-S
verified 2026-07-11

Composition — dry-matter basis

why dry matter
Moisture hides the real recipe: kibble is ~10% water, canned food ~78%. Removing water puts every food on one scale, so these are the only nutrition numbers that can be compared across foods. As-fed label values shown small.
Protein Not disclosedlabel min: —% no corpus anchor — value not disclosed
Fat Not disclosedlabel min: —% no corpus anchor — value not disclosed
Fiber Not disclosedlabel max: —% no corpus anchor — value not disclosed
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate Not disclosedneeds protein/fat/fiber anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: none disclosed Not disclosedcalcium/phosphorus no ratio to anchor

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 365 kcal/cup3683 kcal/kg lighter than 67% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed more cups
Daily serving2¾ cups
Cost per day$1.47
35-lb bag lasts59 days

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $1.49 — cheaper than 75% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two kinds of AAFCO claims exist. Most foods are only "formulated to meet" nutrient profiles — a paper calculation. A smaller set carry the stronger claim: fed to real dogs in AAFCO-procedure trials ("Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate…").
 Feeding trials ✓ · maintenance
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Chicken · Cracked Pearled Barley · Brown Rice · Brewers Rice · Whole Grain Wheat
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)None
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
When a fish-meal supplier adds ethoxyquin, U.S. rules don't require it on the finished label — so no label can prove its absence for recipes containing fish meal. We report this as a gap rather than guessing.
 None — no fish meal in this recipe

Safety

FDA recalls — Hill's Science Diet, since 20232 on record — see recall history
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 3 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official)· price: Amazon, 2026-07-11 · anchors: 494 verified dry dog foods (360 priced) · how to read this label

The fit

For your dog, specifically

Checked for a 40-lb adult with a sensitive stomach — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your dog above and these update.

✓
Validated for adult dogsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
✓
Passes our sensitive-stomach checksNamed animal protein first, and no unnamed by-products in the ingredient list.
·
Contains chickenNot selected as a concern for your dog — shown here for reference.

The source material

The full ingredient list

Every flag on the Verified Label is computed from this list. Ingredients are ordered by pre-cooking weight — the first five carry the most information.

Chicken, Cracked Pearled Barley, Brown Rice, Brewers Rice, Whole Grain Wheat, Whole Grain Corn, Corn Protein Meal, Chicken Meal, Chicken Fat, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Meal, Dried Beet Pulp, Soybean Oil, Lactic Acid, Flaxseed, Pork Liver Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Whole Grain Oats, Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), 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, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Calcium Carbonate, Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Natural Flavors, Beta-Carotene