Royal Canin Cavalier King Charles Adult review

Our Good band is where the typical adult dry food lives, and this recipe finishes a band underneath it, in Average. Nutritional balance is the one pillar to reach Good, with protein and processing and transparency both reading Poor. The analysis is not what puts it there. Protein converts to 29.7% of dry matter, fat to 15.4%, and estimated carbohydrate to 45.4%, a shade under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. For a small breed kibble that is a respectable set of numbers.

The placing is about where that protein comes from and how little of it is pinned to an animal. A vegetable protein isolate sits second on the list, ahead of the first meat entry. The animal entries that do appear are named by family, never by species. A cavalier fed this will be properly nourished. The label simply keeps more to itself than a careful reader would like.

Ingredients, as declared: rice, vegetable protein isolate*, dehydrated poultry protein, maize, animal fats, hydrolysed animal proteins, beet pulp, vegetable fibres, minerals, fish oil, soya oil, dehydrated tomato, fructo-oligo-saccharides, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), borage oil (0.1%), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Rice leads and the vegetable protein isolate follows, which is an order worth pausing on. The asterisk beside the isolate points to the maker's own note about protein selected for very high digestibility. That claim covers how completely the protein is absorbed, not what it was made from. What it was made from is plant material. It does a real job, and it is also why the meat share of this recipe is more modest than a glance at the top of the list would suggest.

Dehydrated poultry protein comes in third, dried before it is mixed so its protein survives the oven intact. Maize and animal fats follow it. Poultry covers any domestic bird and animal fats covers any land animal, so between them the two entries doing much of the nutritional work leave the species open. Hydrolysed animal proteins, broken into small fragments and largely there for taste, keep the same habit.

L-carnitine at 400 mg per kilo is the distinctive addition. The body uses this amino acid to move fat into cells where it can be burned for energy. That is why it turns up most often in recipes written around keeping a dog lean and well muscled. Printing the figure is what makes it useful; plenty of packs mention carnitine without saying how much is in there.

The plant tail is short and sensible. Beet pulp and vegetable fibres give the bulk that keeps stools tidy. Fructo-oligo-saccharides and hydrolysed yeast are there for the good bacteria. Dehydrated tomato brings antioxidants. Crude fibre lands at 3.1% of dry matter. Borage oil at 0.1% is the gamma-linolenic acid entry, there for skin comfort, and fish oil and soya oil supply the rest of the omega fats. Marigold extract carries lutein, and tea extract is declared at 150 mg per kilo as a polyphenol source.

Everything the recipe adds by hand is dosed in print. Zinc at 145 mg, manganese at 62 mg, iron at 48 mg, copper at 15 mg, iodine at 4.8 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg per kilo. Vitamin A is at 30000 IU and vitamin D3 at 800 IU, with clinoptilolite, a natural mineral clay, at 10 g per kilo as a technological aid. The two joint ingredients are the exception. Hydrolysed crustaceans for glucosamine and hydrolysed cartilage for chondroitin close the list, with no quantity beside either. Treat them as a helpful nod towards older joints, not as something you can count.

£6.98 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 7.5kg bags.

Our standard guide takes a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needing around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the usual maintenance estimate). That comes to about 234 grams a day and £1.64 a day. A cavalier weighs a good deal less, so the pack's own table is the one to portion from. It asks 85 grams a day at 5kg, rising to 132 grams at 9kg for a dog at low activity.