Royal Canin Dachshund Adult review

Average is the band this one lands in, a step under the Good the typical adult dry food occupies, and the distance has little to do with the analysis. Protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter, fat to 15.2% and estimated carbohydrate to 44.2%, under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Read on its own, that panel would not raise an eyebrow.

What pulls the placing down is naming. Dehydrated poultry protein, hydrolysed animal proteins and animal fats each describe a category instead of an animal, and the third entry on the list is a plant protein isolate. That is what takes protein and processing to Poor and holds transparency at Average. Fed to a dachshund in good health, this is a workable everyday food that will keep condition steady. The reservation is about the amount of detail the pack gives you, not about the feeding.

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

Rice stands alone as the cereal in this recipe, and a single named grain is a good deal easier to live with than a blend. It is gentle and most dogs tolerate it well. Nothing else joins it, so the list shows no cereal gluten, no wheat and no maize. For an owner who has been through a grain problem before, that alone makes this label simpler to read than most.

Behind it, in second place, is dehydrated poultry protein. Drying happens before the mixing, so its protein is not water waiting to leave in the oven, and the position it holds is roughly the contribution it makes. Poultry is the limiting word: chicken, turkey, duck or goose can all sit behind it, and none of them is settled on. Hydrolysed animal proteins, further down and there mainly to make the food taste of something, keep the same silence about species.

Third place goes to a vegetable protein isolate marked with an asterisk, which the maker explains as protein selected for very high digestibility. The claim is about absorption, and the origin is still plant. It contributes to the 30.4% of dry matter the panel shows. It is also why a strong protein figure does not add up to an especially meaty bowl.

The rest of the list is quietly sensible. Vegetable fibres and beet pulp bring the bulk that keeps stools well formed. Crude fibre lands at 3.2% of dry matter, and fructo-oligo-saccharides feed the gut's good bacteria. Fish oil supplies marine omega 3s, soya oil sits behind it, and borage oil adds gamma-linolenic acid, which is the fatty acid most often chosen where skin comfort is the goal. Lutein comes from marigold extract, and polyphenols from a tea extract declared at 150 mg per kilo.

Every added vitamin and mineral carries a dose. For a reader who likes to check, that is the most useful part of the pack. Zinc is at 139 mg, manganese at 46 mg, iron at 35 mg, copper at 11 mg, iodine at 3.6 mg and selenium at 0.07 mg per kilo. Vitamin A is at 31500 IU and vitamin D3 at 800 IU, with clinoptilolite, a natural mineral clay, at 10 g per kilo as a technological aid. The joint ingredients are less forthcoming. Hydrolysed crustaceans and hydrolysed cartilage finish the list with no quantity attached to either, so take them as support offered without a measured dose.

The bags are 1.5kg and 7.5kg, at £6.98 a kilo.

Our standard guide assumes a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the usual maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly 225 grams a day and £1.57 a day. A dachshund is a much smaller dog than that, so portion from the pack's own table instead. It asks 43 grams a day at 2kg, 85 grams at 5kg and 143 grams at 10kg for a dog at low activity.