Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy review

This one comes out in our Average band. Nutritional balance reads Good, helped by a declared energy figure and a straightforward analysis. Protein and processing and transparency both read Poor: rice at the front, wheat third, and a poultry entry that could be any bird on any given batch.

It is a food that knows what it is for. The energy density suits a breed that should not be eating large volumes, the pork protein is a thoughtful choice for skin-sensitive pups, and the supplement tail is properly specified. What holds the reading down is a list built on cereal and a set of animal ingredients an owner cannot identify.

Ingredients, as declared: rice, dehydrated poultry protein, wheat, vegetable protein isolate*, animal fats, hydrolysed animal proteins, beet pulp, dehydrated pork protein, minerals, soya oil, fish oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides (0.34%), hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), yeasts extracts (source of betaglucans), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Rice opens the recipe, dehydrated poultry protein sits behind it and wheat comes immediately after. Before you reach the analysis, that order has already shown you what the kibble is mostly made of. Chicken, turkey, duck and goose can all answer to the word poultry. The bird can change between batches with the label untouched, and no percentage is given for any meat here.

Dehydrated pork protein is the entry worth pausing on. Pork appears in far fewer recipes than the usual birds, so a puppy meeting it for the first time has had no opportunity to become sensitive to it. On a breed as prone to itchy skin as this one, that is a genuinely useful thing to have on the list.

The energy figure is the highest in the breed puppy range at 414 kcal per 100g, driven by fat declared at 20.0% and converting to 21.7% of dry matter. For a dog with a short face and a compact body, getting the day's energy into a smaller portion is sound design. It is the clearest example of this recipe being shaped for the breed rather than generically.

Fibre is the flip side of that density, declared at 1.2% and converting to 1.3% of dry matter, which is light for a growth food. Beet pulp is the fibre entry doing the work, in a fairly small amount. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 35.7% of dry matter, under the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food. Even with rice and wheat at the front, the starch share stays moderate.

The support tail is fully specified for once. There is a figure on the fructo-oligo-saccharides at 0.34%, with manno-oligo-saccharides from hydrolysed yeast, betaglucans from yeast extracts, lutein from marigold extract, and the joint pair from hydrolysed crustaceans and hydrolysed cartilage. Soya oil and fish oil handle the essential fats, which also brings soya and fish into the allergen picture.

The dosed panel is printed throughout: vitamin A at 31500 IU, vitamin D3 at 800 IU and vitamin E at 630 mg per kilo. Zinc is at 137 mg, manganese at 54 mg, iron at 41 mg, copper at 13 mg, iodine at 4.1 mg and selenium at 0.09 mg. Yucca extract is at 125 mg and clinoptilolite at 10 g. Against all that detail, the absence of a calcium line stands out. Ash at 8.0% shows the mineral load is generous for a kibble, but it says nothing about the split inside it, and calcium is the part of that split a growing puppy depends on.

£6.75 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 10kg bags.

The pack guide works from a 10 kg finished adult, and the amounts step down through the months rather than holding steady. Weigh each meal against the row for your pup's current age and adjust it to the shape they are carrying.