Royal Canin Maxi Sterilised Care review

Average is the band, and the ordinary adult dry food sits a step above it in Good. The sterilised design is not the reason, because that part works exactly as described. Fat is held to 14.1% of dry matter, protein stays up at 30.4%, and estimated carbohydrate reads 41.9% against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Fibre at 7.3% of dry matter keeps a hungry dog occupied on less. The reading falls on the ingredients instead. Maize leads, the bird behind the poultry protein is never identified, and the fats and the hydrolysed proteins name nothing at all. For a neutered large dog who eats this well and holds their shape on it, none of that changes what goes in the bowl.

Ingredients, as declared: maize, dehydrated poultry protein, wheat, maize gluten, vegetable fibres, hydrolysed animal proteins, animal fats, vegetable protein isolate*, beet pulp, fish oil, yeasts and parts thereof, soya oil, minerals, psyllium husks and seeds, borage oil, hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Maize takes the top line with dehydrated poultry protein just behind, then wheat and maize gluten. Reading down the first four entries tells you honestly that the plant side is the larger half of this recipe. The dried poultry protein in second place is still substantial, since it goes in with the water already removed, but the bag opens on cereal and there is no getting around that.

The weight strategy runs on fibre, not on stripping the food back. Vegetable fibres sit fifth on the list, and psyllium husks and seeds and beet pulp follow, lifting crude fibre to 6.7% as fed and 7.3% of dry matter. That is well above a general adult food and it is the reason a reduced ration still fills a bowl. Psyllium is the soluble one, holding water in the gut, while beet pulp does the day-to-day work on stool quality.

Fat is kept to 13.0%, which brings the finished energy to 342 kcal per 100g, and L-carnitine at 200 mg per kilo sits behind that in the additives. L-carnitine is an amino acid derivative with a hand in moving fatty acids into cells to be burned. It is a standard inclusion on foods written for dogs who need to stay trim. Protein is deliberately not cut back with the fat, holding at 30.4% of dry matter so that what a dog loses is not muscle.

The supporting entries are the ones this maker repeats across its large-breed bags. Hydrolysed crustaceans supply glucosamine and hydrolysed cartilage supplies chondroitin, neither with a printed dose, and both are sensible company for a big frame. Fish oil brings the omega 3s, borage oil brings gamma-linolenic acid, and marigold extract brings lutein. Yeasts and parts thereof round out the smaller lines.

Vegetable protein isolate and maize gluten turn up midway through the list. Plant protein from both of them goes into the protein figure, and a dog makes poorer use of it than of the animal kind. It is worth knowing they are there when reading the 28.0% on the front of the pack, because not all of that figure arrives from the bird.

Every added mineral comes with a dose. Zinc is at 135 mg, manganese at 46 mg and iron at 35 mg, with copper at 11 mg, iodine at 3.6 mg and selenium at 0.06 mg per kilo. Vitamin A at 24000 IU and vitamin D3 at 1100 IU sit above them. The clinoptilolite declared at 10 g per kilo is a sedimentary mineral clay that earns its place in the factory, not in the dog. The pack leaves out moisture, and everything in the dry matter column here therefore rests on an assumed 8%.

Sold in a 12kg bag at £5.26 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 245 grams a day at £1.29, on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Most dogs on this bag will be a good deal heavier, and a neutered dog usually needs a little less than an unneutered one of the same size. Give the waistline the final say over the scoop.