Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult review

Our Average band is a fair reflection of a kibble that does nothing dramatic in either direction, with the broad middle of the adult dry shelf a rung above it. Protein and processing reads Poor, nutritional balance comes back Good and transparency Average, which is the ordinary pattern of a label stronger in one place and weaker in another.

Rice and wheat ahead of the pork are what hold it back, along with animal entries that stop short of naming a species. Pulling in the other direction, protein converts to 28.6% and estimated carbohydrate to 43.6% of dry matter, under the 46.2% that the typical adult dry food carries. Fed to the breed on the front of the bag, it does the ordinary job perfectly well.

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

Pork is the headline animal here, and the reason this bag earns a second look. It is still an uncommon choice in the aisle, and an unfamiliar protein is often exactly what an owner is hunting for once the everyday meats have stopped working. It arrives dehydrated and not fresh, with the water gone before the ingredient is weighed, so the amount listed is roughly the amount that reaches the finished kibble.

Rice leads and wheat follows, and between them they form the biscuit. Careful readers query the wheat, and reasonably so: of all the grains, it is the one most often in the frame when a dog turns out not to tolerate something. Plenty of dogs eat it happily for a lifetime, but if wheat is the ingredient you watch, this is not a bag to relax about.

The analysis is steady rather than showy. Protein converts to 28.6% of dry matter and fat to 19.8%, with estimated carbohydrate at 43.6%, under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Energy is the number to respect at 404 kcal per 100g against a typical 357, which is a lot of dinner in a small measure for a medium dog.

The supporting cast earns its keep. Glucosamine is drawn from hydrolysed crustaceans and chondroitin from hydrolysed cartilage, the two joint entries most often asked for on a food built for a stocky frame. Fructo-oligo-saccharides feed the gut's own bacteria, marigold extract supplies lutein, and L-carnitine is dosed at 100 mg per kilo, an amino acid with a part to play in how the body handles fat. Of the trace minerals, skin leans hardest on zinc, printed here at 142 mg per kilo.

The honest limitation is naming. Pork and poultry are both identified. Neither the hydrolysed animal proteins nor the animal fats name a species, and a vegetable protein isolate brings protein from a plant, not from meat. For most dogs none of that changes anything. The one time it matters is when you want to rule a particular animal in or out, and the pork on the front cannot do that job by itself.

£5.67 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 9kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 208 grams a day on the standard maintenance estimate of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That works out at £1.18 a day. For a 12kg dog at low activity the label itself asks 152 grams, and where the two differ, let the waistline decide.