Royal Canin Bulldog Puppy review

This food comes out Average with us, one band under the middle of the puppy dry shelf, and the reason is worth stating exactly. Transparency is the pillar that comes out Poor, with protein and processing Average and nutritional balance Good. The thread running through that is disclosure: species left unnamed, no meat percentages, no calcium line and no declared moisture.

None of that says a Bulldog pup will do badly on it. Plenty thrive, the food is complete and palatable, and the additive panel behind it is fully dosed. Our reading simply rewards labels that show their arithmetic, and this one keeps most of its own to itself.

Ingredients, as declared: dehydrated poultry protein, rice, maize flour, vegetable protein isolate*, animal fats, dehydrated pork protein*, hydrolysed animal proteins, wheat flour, beet pulp, vegetable fibres, minerals, fish oil, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides (0.34%), hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), yeasts extracts (source of betaglucans), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Dehydrated poultry protein leads, which tells you the protein is animal in origin and dried before it goes in, and very little more. Poultry, as the label uses it, can be any of chicken, turkey, duck or goose in any mix. The bird behind the kibble can change from batch to batch and nothing on the bag has to change with it. No percentage is attached to say how much of it there is.

Dehydrated pork protein is the exception, and a welcome one. Pork appears in far fewer dog foods than the usual birds. A puppy who has never eaten it has had no chance to react to it. On a breed known for touchy skin, that makes it a genuinely useful entry. Animal fats and hydrolysed animal proteins return to the unnamed style, and fish oil puts fish into the allergen picture too.

Rice, maize flour and wheat flour split the starch between them, with beet pulp and vegetable fibres adding bulk. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 37.8% of dry matter, a shade under the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. The starch load is ordinary for the shelf, not a heavy one. Wheat is the ingredient owners of sensitive pups most often want flagged, and it is here in flour form.

The functional tail is where Royal Canin does show its hand. Fructo-oligo-saccharides come with a figure at 0.34%, hydrolysed yeast supplies manno-oligo-saccharides, yeast extracts supply betaglucans, and the joint pair arrives as hydrolysed crustaceans and hydrolysed cartilage rather than as bare chemical names. Marigold extract is in for lutein.

The additive panel is dosed in full: vitamin A at 29500 IU, vitamin D3 at 800 IU and vitamin E at 600 mg per kilo. Zinc follows at 135 mg, manganese at 54 mg, iron at 41 mg, copper at 13 mg, iodine at 4.1 mg and selenium at 0.09 mg. Clinoptilolite at 10 g per kilo is a natural mineral that works on the texture of the kibble. Yucca extract at 125 mg is there for stool odour.

On a growth food, the gap that matters most is calcium. The analysis prints protein, fat, fibre and ash and then stops, so the mineral that governs how a fast-growing skeleton lays itself down never appears. Ash at 7.8% tells you the total mineral load is normal for a kibble, but it says nothing about how much of that is calcium. For a breed that gains weight quickly on short legs, calcium is the line an owner would most like to read.

£5.75 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

Royal Canin writes its guide around a finished adult weight of 24 kg, and the daily amount moves the whole way through growth. Read the chart afresh each month rather than sticking with the scoop you started on.