Royal Canin Dalmatian Puppy review

Our Average band is where this food lands, and the picture behind it is mixed rather than uniform. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average, and it is only transparency that comes out Poor.

The protein and processing reading is decided at the front of the list: rice first, an unnamed poultry protein second, and wheat flour and maize gluten behind them. The moderated protein is a considered decision for the breed and no corner cut, and we would sooner say so plainly than mark it down as a failing. The effect on the recipe is a carbohydrate share sitting above what most growth foods carry. Egg powder is a genuine bright spot, and the additive panel is dosed throughout.

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

The order of this list is the story. Rice comes first, ahead of dehydrated poultry protein, with wheat flour third and egg powder fourth. Very few puppy foods put a cereal at the head of the recipe, and the reason here is the protein target. Pitching protein at 25.0% means the meat share has to come down and something else has to take its place.

Moderating protein is the standard dietary approach for this breed, so the low headline should not be read as a food cutting corners on meat. It is a design decision with a purpose behind it. What follows from it, though, is a carbohydrate estimate of 41.2% of dry matter, above the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. Keep that in view if you also want the starch modest.

Egg powder is the most useful entry on the list. Egg is a compact, highly digestible protein that brings fat and a spread of micronutrients with it, and seeing it named at fourth place gives the recipe something concrete to stand on. The dehydrated poultry protein above it names no bird. Nor do the hydrolysed animal proteins and animal fats lower down, which leaves egg as the one animal ingredient here you can actually identify.

Maize gluten sits mid-list, a milling by-product that adds plant protein to the analysis, with vegetable fibres and a vegetable protein isolate alongside it. Fibre is declared at 3.5%, converting to 3.8% of dry matter, which is a touch more bulk than most growth kibbles offer and no bad thing on a food this cereal-forward.

The support entries are the familiar Royal Canin set: fructo-oligo-saccharides declared at 0.34%, lutein from marigold extract, betaglucans from yeast extracts, and glucosamine and chondroitin named at source as hydrolysed crustaceans and hydrolysed cartilage. Fish oil and soya oil cover the essential fats, so fish and soya both belong in the allergen picture.

The dosed panel is printed in full: vitamin A at 27500 IU, vitamin D3 at 700 IU and vitamin E at 560 mg per kilo. Zinc is at 139 mg, iron at 43 mg, manganese at 35 mg, copper at 6 mg, iodine at 3 mg and selenium at 0.13 mg. What the analysis never gives is calcium, and on a breed that finishes big that is the omission with the most weight behind it. A large frame laid down too fast on the wrong mineral balance is the classic pitfall in rearing, and this label leaves the owner without the figure to rule it out.

£5.67 a kilo, sold in a 12kg bag.

Royal Canin builds its chart towards a 26kg adult, and a Dalmatian pup's ration climbs steeply before it levels off again. Keep checking the chart against your pup's current age, because filling the same bowl all year will not keep up.