Royal Canin Medium Adult review

This one lands in the Average band, and the honest reason is what the label leaves unsaid. The typical adult dry food sits a band higher, in Good, largely because it names its meat. Here the top entry says poultry without naming a bird, the fat is simply animal fat, the hydrolysed protein has no species either, and cereals take four of the first five places. Set against that, the analysis is unremarkable without being poor, with protein at 27.2% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate at 49.3% against the 46.2% typical for the category. Dogs do perfectly well on it. Our scoring simply rewards labels that tell you more.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry proteins, wheat, maize flour, wheat flour, maize, hydrolysed animal proteins, animal fats, dehydrated pork proteins, barley, maize gluten, beet pulp, minerals, soya oil, yeasts products, fish oil, yeasts (source of manno-oligosaccharides), algal oil Schizochytrium sp.

Dehydrated poultry proteins open the list. A dried meat entry keeps its place honestly, since the water left it long before the kibble was made. Poultry, though, is a family rather than a bird. Chicken, turkey, duck and goose all qualify, and the label commits to none of them. Protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter, which is squarely mid range for a kibble of this kind.

Wheat comes second and returns as wheat flour in fourth, with maize flour and maize either side of it. That is a properly cereal based construction, and the estimated carbohydrate of 49.3% of dry matter says as much. Cooked cereals suit the great majority of dogs, and the barley further down is one of the better ones. It brings fibre and micronutrients along with it. Wheat is the entry to watch, for the simple reason that it tops the list of grains dogs react to.

Dehydrated pork proteins are the one entry that names its animal, and it is a good one to find. Pork appears in relatively few recipes, which makes it genuinely novel for a lot of dogs, and it is a palatable, well regarded meat. Eighth on the list makes it a supporting player. It is also the reason a pork avoiding household should read this label carefully.

The tail of the list carries the modern touches. EPA and DHA come from the fish oil and the algal oil. The yeast entry is in as a source of manno-oligosaccharides for the gut flora, and beet pulp handles the fibre, with crude fibre finishing at a low 1.5% of dry matter. Soya oil and maize gluten are the two entries a sensitive dog's owner tends to want flagged, and they are flagged here.

The additive panel is complete, with a dose printed against each line. Vitamin A is at 14200 IU, vitamin D3 at 900 IU, vitamin E at 500 mg and vitamin C at 120 mg. Zinc comes at 128 mg, manganese at 54 mg and iron at 41 mg, with copper at 13 mg, iodine at 4.1 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg per kilo. Calcium is not declared anywhere, a small gap on a food written for adults and a larger one if you were ever tempted to share the bag with a growing puppy.

£4.33 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 15kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition eats about 219 grams a day on an assumed 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £0.95 a day. The bag's own table asks 150 grams for an 11kg dog and 277 grams for a 25kg one at low activity. Both are starting points, to be adjusted to the shape of the dog.