About the Authors

Carina Salt

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

carina.salt@effem.com

Affiliation Waltham Petcare Science Institute, Mars Petcare, Waltham on the Wolds, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

Alexander J. German

Roles Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Neston, Cheshire, United Kingdom

Kristin S. Henzel

Roles Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France

Richard F. Butterwick

Roles Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Waltham Petcare Science Institute, Mars Petcare, Waltham on the Wolds, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

CS and RFB are employees of WALTHAM, KSH is an employee of Royal Canin, and both are owned by Mars Inc. 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. None of these declarations alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Please see accessibility of study data section below for details about data accessibility.