Hills Dog Food Review, Recalls & Coupons for 2023

Meet Hill's Dog Food

Curious about Hills Dog Food? You are in the right page, below is our in-depth Hills Dog Food Review, do indulge!

Hills is a dog food brand that specializes in creating food for specific health issues associated with your pup. Veterinarians recommend their food, and they have an excellent reputation across the internet.

Something that immediately stands out about this company is the amount of attention they give to specific pet ailments. They make food that helps with weight management, food sensitivities, kidney care, digestive health, and joint health.

One of their most popular lines of dog food, the sensitive stomach blend has 526 reviews on Chewy with 98% of reviewers recommending the product. A positive company reputation is important when talking about dog food because there is no real way for you to find out if it works beforehand.

In this article, we’re taking a serious look at whether Hill's Dog Food brand is a good option for you and your canine.

Brand Quick Look

• Parent Company: Hill’s Pet Nutrition a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive
• Founded in: 1930
• Made in: Topeka, Kansas
• Available at:  Chewy, Amazon, PetSmart
• Types of Food: Dry, Moist, Treats
• Real Meat in First 5 Ingredients? : Yes (for some lines)
• Recalled in Past? : Yes

Hill's Dog Food Review

Now let’s take an in-depth look into a couple of the foods we’ve talked about here. We’re going to pick apart every piece of the puzzle to find out if this food is as good as the manufacturer claims. We have our concerns, so we’re bringing them to you.

The products reviewed on this post are as follows: 

1. Hill's Science Diet Adult Sensitive Stomach & Skin Chicken Recipe
2. Hill's Prescription Diet i/d Digestive Care with Turkey
3. Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken & Barley Recipe
4. Hill's Science Diet Adult Perfect Weight Chicken Recipe
5. Hill's Prescription Diet w/d Multi-Benefit

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1. Hill’s Science Diet Adult Sensitive Stomach Chicken

First Five Ingredients: Chicken, Brewers Rice, Chicken Meal, Yellow Peas, Cracked Pearled Barley

This food from Hill’s says that it’s uniquely formulated to provide the precise nutrition that your pup needs. In this case, if your dog is prone to food sensitivities or vomiting this would be the ideal food for you.

The brand contains omega-6 fatty acids to help with skin and coat, antioxidants for immune health, and it doesn’t contain any artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

The product has 872 reviews on Chewy with 98% of reviewers recommending the food. Users say it helped their dog with vomiting and they all gobble it up.

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2. Hill’s Prescription Diet: Digestive Care

First Five Ingredients: Brewers rice, whole grain corn, chicken meal, pea protein, egg product

This food claims to help improve digestion and stool quality by using an optimal blend of highly digestive fiber. The food also contains a high number of electrolytes and B vitamins to help your dog stay at optimal health.

The interesting thing is that Hill’s does not just use the term prescription diet, the company requires that you have a prescription from a licensed vet to buy this food. That immediately builds trust in us and shows consumers that they have a robust medical reputation.

It worth noting that the food does not contain whole meat anywhere in the list of ingredients, and that's pretty bad.

The food does have 698 reviews with 4.8 stars out of 5. There are only few critical reviews on Chewy, so you have to assume that the product works to help dogs with digestion issues. Some users also state that this food changed their dog's life.

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3. Hill’s Science Diet Chicken and Barley Recipe

First Five Ingredients: Chicken, Whole Grain Wheat, Cracked Pearled Barley, Whole Grain Sorghum

This recipe from Hill’s focuses on helping your dog develop and maintain lean muscles and an ideal body condition. The ingredients are easy to digest and perfect for a fit-minded dog.

Something that confuses us a little is that everything contains many of the same ingredients, so we don’t understand how they’re catering to individual issues.

This food claims to provide all the same benefits of the previous two which were for sensitive stomachs and digestive health; it’s almost as if all the food has a placebo effect.

The food also has an excellent reputation on Chewy just like every other food line from this brand. They have 279 reviews with 95% of reviewers recommending the product.

Most people say their dog's coat improved and that they switched back to a grain diet and noticed improved health in their pup.

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4. Hill's Science Diet Adult Perfect Weight Chicken Recipe

First Five Ingredients: Chicken, Cracked Pearled Barley, Brown Rice, Pea Fiber, Corn Gluten Meal.

Hill's Science Diet Adult Perfect Weight Chicken Recipe is a dry dog food specially formulated to help dogs achieve a healthy weight. Made with real chicken, this formula helps build lean and strong muscles.

Prebiotic fibers are included for digestibility. A clinically proven blend of antioxidants with vitamins C and E is included to help boost the immune system.

Like all Hill’s Science Diet recipe’s this Perfect Weight chicken recipe is backed by decades of scientific research. It is recommended by numerous vets globally.

According to reviews, dogs love the rich chicken flavor of this Science Diet formula. The are excited for mealtimes and gobble up the pieces. However, some find the new and improved version of this food to have kibbles that are too small for their liking.

The smaller kibbles are preferred by some older and smaller dogs, as they are much easier to chew and digest. It has indeed been effective in managing the weights of dogs. Many of them have lost excess pounds and are able to maintain healthy weights.

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5.  Hill's Prescription Diet w/d Multi-Benefit

First Five Ingredients: Whole Grain Wheat, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken Meal, Whole Grain Corn, Corn Gluten Meal

Hill's Prescription Diet w/d Multi-Benefit is a dry dog food formulated for dogs who need weight and glucose management, and have digestive and urinary issues.

Hill's Prescription Diet w/d Multi-Benefit has an optimal blend of soluble and insoluble fiber. This dry food is clinically tested nutrition for conditions that respond to fiber such as weight management, glucose management, and gastrointestinal issues.

This multi-benefit formula has therapeutic L-carnitine levels to help metabolize fat and maintain lean muscles. The blend of soluble and insoluble fiber helps keep weight at ideal levels. It also helps manage blood glucose.

This prescription food is also formulated for dogs with urinary issues. It has S+OXSHIELD which promotes a urinary environment that reduces the risk of developing struvite and calcium oxalate crystals.

According to reviews, it has helped numerous dogs with various health issues from diabetes to digestive issues to obesity. They have shown significant improvement in their conditions since being fed this Prescription Diet formula.

While looking at the ingredient list may cause some to be a bit skeptical, the results it was able to deliver has been quite impressive.

It is no wonder that vets prescribe this formula to help dogs suffering from diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, and bladder issues.

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Behind the Brand

Hill’s is currently one of the oldest pet food companies in existence dating all the way back to 1930. The company started with the story of a blind man and his seeing eye dog Buddy.

Buddy was a German Shepherd suffering a wide variety of health problems including kidney failure so his owner, Morris Frank recruited a friend of his who was a doctor. Together they developed a prescription grade dog food and stored it in mason jars in the family basement.

In 1948, Dr. Morris partnered with Hill Packing Company and moved the business to Topeka, Kansas. He did this so he could stop shipping his food in fragile mason jars.

In the years to come, the company would evolve into Hill’s Pet Nutrition and together they would grow their recipes and formulas to help a wide variety of new health issues facing pets all over the country.

In 1968 veterinarians started recommending this food in their practices and that is when the term “Science Diet” came into play.

In 1976 Colgate-Palmolive purchased Hills, and now their pet products are available in 86 countries, and they’ve done over one billion in sales.

Hill’s Nutrition now employs a staff of veterinarians and board-certified pet nutritionists to develop healthy and tasty food for your favorite household companions.

What Types of Dog Foods Does Hills Offer?

Hills offers three main types of dog food. They have their Science Diet line which is veterinarian recommended and formulated to help dogs live the best life through biology-based nutrition.

Next, we have the Prescription Diet which is a specific dog food line geared towards helping dogs with needs. The food helps with weight, mobility, kidneys, digestion, urinary tract, and coat health.

They also have the Ideal Balance line that they say uses perfectly balanced natural ingredients and nothing else. The food is also grain, corn, and soy free but we guess this means that the other foods from Hill’s are not all natural and free from additives.

Hill’s Science Diet:

• Sensitive Stomach and Skin Chicken
• Perfect Weight Chicken
• Advanced Fitness Small Bites
• Advanced Fitness Chicken and Barley
• And more

Hill’s Prescription Diet:

• Digestive/Weight/Glucose Management
• Skin/Food Sensitivities
• Digestive Care
• Metabolic and Mobility
• Urinary Care
• And more

Hill’s Ideal Balance:

• Grain-Free Chicken and Potato

Hills Recall History List:

Since the company's founding, there have been multiple recalls of this dog food. Here they are in reverse chronological order.

• January 2020 – Hills recalls 25 different brands of dry and wet food due to elevated levels of Vitamin D.
• November 2015 – Hills recalls six different brands of Science Diet due to labeling concerns.
• June 2014 – Hills recalls Science Diet small and toy breed dry foods for possible salmonella contamination.

Customer Reviews

The best way to truly understand if something will work for you is to get an idea of the experiences other people have already had. Here we’re taking a look at real-life reviews from trusted sources.

Positive

My dog loves it so much.

• We moved in from another country to the US, and we were worried about finding the perfect food for our dog, who has a sensitivity to some kinds of food (The food he was into is not available here). The first time I open the package I was worried because the food seems a little bit big for him (he is a Lhasa apso). However, he's been eating this food like crazy and so far so good. I'm really happy with this purchase. Highly recommend! – Chewy Customer

Hills Science Diet helps reduce vomiting.

• My 11-year-old Shih Tzu has been throwing up more frequently over the last several years. I used Iams weight control with boiled chicken and other meats, but she kept throwing up. Finally, I switched her to Hills Science diet for sensitive stomachs. She had an immediate positive response. I mixed it with chicken bullion to make it more interesting, especially for my male Shih Tzu who loves meat. It is working like a charm. No more throwing up. – Chewy Customer

Highly recommend!

• Very highly recommend this dog food for any dog with a sensitive stomach. For the last year and a half, our blue heeler has had on and off the upset stomach. It gets bad to the point he would start vomiting blood. After way too much money spent on vet bills, medications, and different foods- we gave this one a try. Wow, what a difference!! A couple of weeks of eating this and our dog is back! Now a little over a month on it and not one day with an upset stomach. He has his old personality and energy back! SO happy with this! – Chewy Customer

Negative

Don’t waste your money.

• I bought this item because my baby gain a bit weight and she has a sensitive stomach. Since she has been eating this dog food, she has been vomiting a couple of times a week. Plus, she didn’t lose any weight either. Wouldn’t recommend it at all… – Chewy Customer

Dogs not taking to Hills

• I had always liked Hills and went to it when one of my dogs needed sensitive systems dog food. However, my dogs have never taken a liking to it, not sure if it is the taste or what — previous dogs liked it. I am thinking of changing. – Chewy Customer

Veterinarian Approved; Customer Approved

Overall: 4 out of 5

Flavor: 4 out of 5

Ingredients: 3.5 out of 5

Benefits: 4.5 out of 5

Packaging: 4 out of 5

Price: 4 out of 5

Hill’s Pet Food has a spectacular reputation online and in the medical community as being the go-to food for dogs with health issues and sensitivities. You cannot argue with thousands upon thousands of reviews with 95% or more being five stars.

We’re somewhat surprised because the ingredients in Hill’s are not what some of the “healthy food” manufacturers say your dog needs, so we’re wondering if “grain-free,” and “high-protein” are little marketing schemes to sell more expensive food.

Either way, Hill’s provides a wide array of dog food to help pups with many ailments so if you’ve been struggling to find something that works you should give Hill’s a try.