Royal Canin Medium Digestive Care review

Digestive Care comes out in our Average band while the middle of the adult dry category holds the Good band. Most of that gap is a question of what the label says out loud. Rice is first, wheat flour third, and maize gluten and a vegetable protein isolate both help carry the protein figure, which finishes at 27.2% of dry matter. Estimated carbohydrate actually lands below the category norm at 44.5% of dry matter against 46.2%, with fat carrying more of the energy instead. None of that makes it a difficult food for a delicate gut. It makes it a label that keeps its details to itself, and our scoring reads labels.

Ingredients, as declared: rice, dehydrated poultry protein, wheat flour, animal fats, wheat, maize gluten, vegetable protein isolate*, barley, hydrolysed animal proteins, beet pulp, soya oil, minerals, fish oil, vegetable fibres, fructo-oligo-saccharides, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein).

Rice at the top is the tell. Rice is the cereal a maker reaches for when digestibility matters most, gentle on the gut and quickly broken down. Putting it ahead of the meat is a deliberate choice. Dehydrated poultry protein sits second, protein settles at 27.2% of dry matter, and the poultry is once again a family name with no bird attached.

The gut work is spread across several entries. Beet pulp and vegetable fibres carry the bulk. Fructo-oligosaccharides and hydrolysed yeast work as prebiotics, feeding the useful bacteria. Clinoptilolite is dosed at 10 g per kilo among the technological additives, and its job there is to hold water in the gut and firm up the stool. Crude fibre itself stays low at 2.0% of dry matter. The effect is meant to come from the type of fibre, not the quantity.

Fat is the number that stands out, at 19.6% of dry matter, higher than most everyday kibbles run. Fat is energy dense and generally very digestible, which is why a recipe like this leans on it, and it means a smaller bowl goes further. A dog that cannot handle a rich meal should come onto it slowly, with their stomach setting the pace.

Alongside the poultry, the protein is helped along by maize gluten and a vegetable protein isolate, both plant sources that lift the analysis without meat doing the lifting. Hydrolysed animal proteins, whose species is never given, add more. Wheat flour and wheat sit high on the list too, with barley behind them. None of it is unsafe. It does mean the label is a blunt tool for identifying a trigger, which is often the very thing an owner of a sensitive dog wants from a bag.

The additive panel is fully dosed, with vitamin A at 22000 IU and vitamin D3 at 1000 IU. Zinc runs at 132 mg, manganese at 49 mg, iron at 38 mg, copper at 12 mg, iodine at 3.8 mg and selenium at 0.06 mg per kilo. Borage oil and marigold extract close the list, adding GLA and lutein. Calcium goes undeclared, and the energy figure of 384 kcal per 100g is an estimate rather than a printed declaration.

£5.26 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition takes about 219 grams a day, assuming 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which lands at £1.15 a day. The label asks 210 grams for a 15kg dog at a normal activity level and 308 grams for a 25kg one, so the two readings sit close together.