Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Puppy review

Ingredients, as declared: Rice flour, hydrolysed soya protein isolate, animal fats, rice, minerals, hydrolysed poultry liver, beet pulp, soya oil, fructooligosaccharides, fish oil, borage oil, marigold meal. Protein sources: hydrolysed soya protein isolate (20.1%), hydrolysed poultry liver (5.0%). Carbohydrate sources: rice (42.7%).

Rice flour opens the label and rice appears again further down, together making up the carbohydrate source the maker prints at 42.7%. Protein comes from two hydrolysed entries and nothing else: hydrolysed soya protein isolate at 20.1% and hydrolysed poultry liver at 5.0%. Both have been broken into small fragments before they reach the bag, which is the mechanism the whole recipe rests on, and it means there is no whole meat here to identify.

The oils are worth reading closely if the point of the diet is exclusion. Animal fats sit third on the list with no species attached, and fish oil, soya oil and borage oil all appear lower down. Fish oil is fish-derived even though no fish protein comes with it. Borage oil is a plant oil chosen for its fatty acid profile, and the unnamed animal fats cannot be pinned to a species from the pack.

Beet pulp handles the fibre, fructooligosaccharides are in as a prebiotic and marigold meal ends the list. Fibre itself is declared low, converting to 1.1% of dry matter, which suits a recipe aiming to keep digestion simple while a young dog settles.

On a dry matter basis the analysis gives protein at 25.0% and fat at 20.7%, with crude ash at 8.8% and the carbohydrate estimate at 44.4%, and energy comes to 385 kcal per 100g. That is a fat-forward, starch-heavy profile for a growth food, and it follows from feeding a puppy on fragments of protein rather than on meat, so treat it as the design of this particular diet.

One gap is worth raising at the appointment: calcium and phosphorus are not printed on the panel here, and those are the two figures anyone growing a big puppy usually wants in front of them. What is printed is the added panel: vitamin A at 34500 IU and vitamin D3 at 800 IU. Iron runs at 39mg, iodine at 3.5mg, copper at 15mg, manganese at 52mg, zinc at 153mg and selenium at 0.25mg per kilogram, with clinoptilolite at 10g. Preservatives and antioxidants are named only as categories. Your vet has the growth curve in front of them, and the yes or no on this bag belongs there.

It is bagged in 1.5kg, 3.5kg and 14kg, at £6.42 a kilo.