Royal Canin Chihuahua Loaf review

Our reading of a food starts with what its label declares, and this one declares six categories and nothing else, so much of what we can say comes from the analysis rather than the recipe. The loaf settles in our Average band, with nutritional balance the standout at Outstanding and protein and processing and transparency both Average. Wet food generally does well on our scoring, with the typical adult recipe reaching our Excellent band, so this sits a long way below what the category usually manages.

None of that is a verdict on the food in the bowl. Royal Canin is one of the most researched names in the business and its small breed products have kept a great many little dogs in fine condition. The placement tells you that you are trusting the maker, not reading the recipe. Reading it is not on offer here.

Ingredients, as declared: meat and animal derivatives, derivatives of vegetable origin, cereals, oils and fats, minerals, various sugars.

The whole list runs to six entries, and not one of them names something you could point at. Meat and animal derivatives can be any warm blooded land animal in any proportion, derivatives of vegetable origin covers most of what grows, and cereals covers every grain there is. This is a legal and very common way to write a wet food label, and its practical effect is that the recipe can be reformulated without a word on the pack needing to change.

The analysis is the part you can hold on to, and it is perfectly sensible. Protein converts to 40.5% of dry matter and fat to 26.7%, both comfortable for a wet food, and the carbohydrate estimate comes to 16.1% against 15.8% for the typical adult wet recipe. Whatever the cereals are, there is no hidden mountain of them.

Various sugars turn up towards the end of the list. In wet food, sugar helps with browning and palatability, and at the tail of six entries the quantity will be small. It is still the sort of line plenty of owners would rather not see on a label they read every day.

There is little in the added panel, and every entry in it carries a printed figure. Vitamin D3 at 200 IU, iron at 8mg, zinc at 26mg, manganese at 2.6mg, copper at 1.9mg and iodine at 0.2mg per kilo. Clinoptilolite at 2 g per kilo is a technological additive, a natural mineral used to help the loaf hold its texture.

Feeding this is not a gamble on your dog's health, and nothing here suggests otherwise. It is a question of trust, and Royal Canin has earned more of that than most makers. If your Chihuahua is thriving on it, the evidence that matters most is already in front of you.

£10.24 a kilo, in 85 g servings sold in packs of 12.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat roughly 941 grams a day at around £9.63, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A dog of the size this loaf is made for eats a small fraction of that, so the everyday figure for a Chihuahua is far lower.