Royal Canin Medium Light Weight Care review

The Average band is where this recipe finishes on our scale, with the typical adult dry food a band above it in Good. A diet food always has a hard time here, because the very things that make it work, cellulose powder and vegetable fibres bulking out the bowl, count against an ingredients reading that rewards named meat. What the analysis shows is a properly built weight recipe: fat down at 12.0% of dry matter, protein up at 29.3% and fibre at 12.8%. Estimated carbohydrate lands at 40.7%, below the 46.2% that is typical for the category. The reading and the purpose pull in different directions on this one, and it is worth knowing which of them matters for your dog.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry protein, vegetable fibres, maize, wheat, barley, maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, maize flour, animal fats, rice, beet pulp, cellulose powder, vegetable protein isolate*, yeasts and parts thereof, fish oil, minerals, fructo-oligo-saccharides, psyllium husks and seeds, soya oil, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Dehydrated poultry protein leads and vegetable fibres come straight after it, which tells you what kind of food this is inside two lines. Protein converts to 29.3% of dry matter, deliberately high, because a dog on a reduced ration needs their muscle defended while the fat comes off. The poultry here is a family name, with no bird behind it, as elsewhere on this shelf.

Fibre is the engine of the recipe. At 12.8% of dry matter it is several times what a standard kibble carries, and it arrives from vegetable fibres, cellulose powder, beet pulp and psyllium husks between them. Cellulose powder deserves an honest description: it is purified plant fibre, all but indigestible, and it is here because it fills a bowl and a stomach without bringing calories along. That is a filler in the literal sense, and on a weight food it is the point rather than the problem.

Energy comes down to 304 kcal per 100g, which is what lets a dog keep eating a proper looking meal on fewer calories. Fat is held to 12.0% of dry matter. L-carnitine is dosed at 200 mg per kilo, an amino acid derivative that helps shift fat into the cells where it is burned.

Glucosamine arrives by way of hydrolysed crustaceans and chondroitin by way of hydrolysed cartilage, which is thoughtful on a food for heavy dogs, since the joints are what carry the extra weight around all day. Neither entry comes with a dose. Lutein comes from marigold extract, and fish oil carries the omega 3s. With the crustaceans as well, there are marine ingredients here, which matters to a small number of households.

The middle of the list is mostly maize, wheat, barley, maize gluten and maize flour, with a vegetable protein isolate helping the protein figure along. The plants are carrying a lot of the load on this recipe. The additive panel is complete, with vitamin A at 22000 IU and vitamin D3 at 1000 IU. Zinc runs at 133 mg, manganese at 44 mg, iron at 34 mg, copper at 10 mg, iodine at 3.4 mg and selenium at 0.05 mg per kilo. Calcium is not declared.

Bags come in 3kg and 12kg, at £5.26 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition would eat about 277 grams a day at maintenance, assuming 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.46 a day. Weight loss means a smaller ration than that, so read the figure as an upper marker and set the real amount with your vet.