Hill's Sterilised Cat Chicken review

A 4 kg neutered cat on this food gets through about 24 kg a year, which comes to about £226 at £27.89 for 3 kg, read on Pets at Home on 2 November 2026.

That's the Merck Veterinary Manual's formula: 70 x 4^0.75 x 1.2, so 238 kcal a day, at the 3,570 kcal/kg the store prints. Hill's own feeding table is thriftier. It gives a 4 kg cat 60 g a day, or 22 kg a year and about £204. Merck says one animal can need as much as 30% more or less, so I'd budget for the range.

This review comes from the listing, its label data and named sources. I haven't fed it to a cat. My score is an opinion on that evidence.

What the money compares with

The same cat, the same formula, the same day's prices on Pets at Home:

So the question is what you get for the extra. My roundup of dry cat foods sets it against three more bags.

Pets at Home was also running 3 for 2 on selected Hill's foods, valid until midnight on 3 November 2026, according to the listing. Three bags at the price of two would take the year down to about £151 while it lasted. It's a date-stamped offer, so don't build a budget on it. The subscribe-and-save line on the page is a smaller 5% off.

What the label shows

Calories are a touch lower than the cheaper bag: 3,570 kcal/kg against 3,760 kcal/kg for Whiskas. That means slightly more food per day for the same energy, so lower density doesn't save you money. Fat is 10 %, against 12 % and 14 % for Purina ONE. Protein is 31.8 %, which sits between them.

The recipe opens with chicken and turkey meal, with chicken at 14% and total poultry at 23%. Maize, broken rice and wheat come straight after. Purina ONE opens with chicken at 17%, then dried poultry protein. Whiskas opens with cereals, and that's a real difference.

Fibre is listed at 1.1 %, and the page gives L-carnitine at 527 mg per kg. I can't tell you what either does for your cat. Nobody could, from a listing.

Claims I'm leaving with the maker

The listing says "Veterinarian Recommended" and talks about urinary health, antioxidants and lean bodies. All of that is the maker's wording, repeated on a shop page. I read no independent test of this food, so I give those claims no credit in the score. If your cat has a urinary problem or a weight problem, that's a conversation for your vet, and they may well point you to a different food altogether.

Pets at Home shows 147 reviews averaging 4.9 out of 5. Those are shoppers' opinions on a store's own site, and they don't measure health.

Does a neutered cat need it?

Neutering does change the sum. Merck gives a neutered adult cat 1.2 x its resting energy and an intact one 1.4 x. But a calorie cut can come from a smaller portion of an ordinary complete food, and Hill's own 60 g sits inside the 55 to 65 g Whiskas suggests for the same 4 kg cat. Read whether neutered pets need less food for the reasoning. A sterilised recipe is one way to do it. I wouldn't call it the required way, unless your vet does.

Who it's for

Read the age limits first. The listing is for adult sterilised cats up to 6 years old and says it isn't suitable for kittens under 10 months. There's a separate column for young cats from the operation to 1 year, at 110 g a day for 4 kg, which is nearly double the adult figure. Plan for that if you're buying right after surgery.

I'd buy it if a vet suggested it for your cat, or if you've compared recipes and want this one and the bill doesn't bother you. On price alone I'd look at Purina ONE first. To run your cat's weight against either bag, use the pet cost calculator, or go to the Hill's product page for the store link.