Royal Canin Medium Adult In Loaf review

Nothing about this loaf is unusual for a big brand wet food, and that includes the label, which is why it sits in our Average band. Protein and processing and transparency both read Average, and nutritional balance reads Outstanding. Our scoring rewards a maker who names what goes in, and the four main entries here are categories that could be filled a dozen different ways. The bowl itself reads perfectly well, with protein converting to 42.9% of dry matter, fat to 26.6% and estimated carbohydrate to 18.1% where adult wet food typically runs at 15.8%. The middle of the wet shelf occupies our Excellent band, and the gap between that and this is a gap in disclosure rather than in cooking. A dog thriving on this loaf is not a dog with a problem.

Ingredients, as declared: meat and animal derivatives, cereals, minerals, derivatives of vegetable origin, oils and fats, yeasts.

Meat and animal derivatives, cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin and oils and fats carry this recipe between them, and not one of the four commits to anything. Any warm blooded land animal qualifies for the first, any grain for the second, virtually any processed plant material for the third, and fat from any source at all for the fourth. That is ordinary practice on a mainstream wet label. It is also why this loaf cannot be used to test a suspected intolerance.

Minerals appearing third on a six entry list is the detail worth noting. That position points to a real inclusion, not a trace, and it shows up as ash converting to 9.9% of dry matter. Yeasts close the list, bringing B vitamins, the cell wall fibres used to feed gut bacteria and a savoury note that makes a plain loaf more interesting.

Fibre is the lowest figure on the panel at 0.5% as fed, converting to 2.5% of dry matter, so this is a smooth, low residue meal without much bulk in it. Protein at 8.7% converts to 42.9% once the water is stripped out, and fat at 5.4% converts to 26.6%. That is a rich, meat led shape for a wet recipe, and the carbohydrate estimate of 18.1% of dry matter keeps the unnamed cereals in a supporting role.

The added panel is fully dosed and is the most specific writing on the pack. Vitamin E comes at 140 mg per kilo, with vitamin C at 30 mg and vitamin D3 at 160 IU. Zinc is at 26 mg, iron at 8 mg, copper at 2.8 mg, manganese at 2.6 mg and iodine at 0.35 mg. Clinoptilolite of sedimentary origin follows at 2 g per kilo, a natural clay that helps a wet mix keep its shape.

Judged as a meal rather than as a list, this is a rich, easy, familiar loaf from a house with a long record behind it. The catch is that you are trusting the recipe, not reading it, and the pack offers no way round that.

Sold twelve to a case in 410 g packs, at £6.71 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15 kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat roughly 941 grams a day, working out at about £6.31. That rests on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate) and on our estimated energy figure. We are not quoting the pack's own rows alongside that, because the figures we hold for them are too small to be a day of food for the dogs they are set against.