About the Authors

John Flanagan

Roles Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France

Thomas Bissot

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Current address: Leiber GmbH, Hafenstrasse, Bramsche, Germany.

Affiliation Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France

Marie-Anne Hours

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France

Bernabe Moreno

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Current address: IDEXX Europe BV, Scorpius, LR Hoofddorp, Netherlands.

Affiliation Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France

Alexander J. German

Roles Formal analysis, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

ajgerman@liverpool.ac.uk

Affiliations Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Neston, Cheshire, United Kingdom, Institute of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, Neston, Cheshire, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The diets used in this study are all produced by Royal Canin. JF and MAH are employees Royal Canin. At the time the study was conducted, TB and BM were also employees of Royal Canin. AJG is an employee of the University of Liverpool, but his post is financially supported by Royal Canin. AJG has also received financial remuneration for providing educational material, speaking at conferences, and consultancy work from this company; all such remuneration has been for projects unrelated to the work reported in this manuscript. Remuneration was not received for drafting, reviewing and approving the manuscript for publication. None of these declarations alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Please see accessibility of study data section below for details about data accessibility.