Royal Canin Medium Puppy review

We place this one in our Average band, under the Good band a typical puppy dry food occupies. Transparency and the protein and processing reading both stop at Average, with nutritional balance coming back Excellent, and naming is what holds that lower pair down. Dehydrated poultry protein, animal fats and hydrolysed animal proteins name a type and never the thing itself, and wheat gluten with maize gluten sits high enough to matter.

The nutritional shape is another matter. Carbohydrate at an estimated 32.5% of dry matter is well under the 39.0% a typical puppy dry food carries. Protein converts to 34.8% and fat to 21.7%, and the energy figure is declared rather than estimated. A pup will grow perfectly happily on this; the label simply tells you less than the most open ones do.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry protein, animal fats, maize, wheat gluten*, beet pulp, dehydrated pork protein*, maize gluten, rice, wheat flour, hydrolysed animal proteins, wheat, maize flour, minerals, soya oil, yeasts products, fish oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides and betaglucans) (0.30%), algal oil Schizochytrium sp. (source of DHA), Yucca Schidigera juice, marigold meal.

The energy in this kibble comes largely from its first two entries: dehydrated poultry protein, then animal fats. Neither entry names its species. Dehydrated pork protein appears sixth, and that one is named outright, a small piece of clarity worth having on a list that mostly deals in categories.

Maize, wheat gluten, maize gluten, rice, wheat flour, wheat and maize flour make up the cereal side, spread thinly across a lot of separate entries. Even so, carbohydrate converts to an estimated 32.5% of dry matter, comfortably under the 39.0% typical of a puppy dry food, because so much of the room has gone to fat instead.

Fat is the defining number here: 20.0% as fed, converting to 21.7% of dry matter, with energy declared at 410 kcal per 100g against the 376 typical. That is a genuinely rich bowl. A medium pup in full swing will put it to good use, and a quieter one will need the scoop levelled off with some care.

The label goes without a calcium figure. Ash at 8.6% as fed, converting to 9.3% of dry matter, shows a healthy mineral inclusion. The split is not given, and calcium is the part of it a growing pup depends on most. That is worth asking the maker about before you commit.

At the tail sit fructo-oligo-saccharides and hydrolysed yeast at 0.30%, the yeast supplying manno-oligo-saccharides and betaglucans. After those come an algal oil grown from Schizochytrium for DHA, fish oil, Yucca Schidigera juice and marigold meal. Beet pulp higher up does the fibre work, which is light at 1.7% of dry matter. Joints are the gap in this one, with neither glucosamine nor chondroitin on the list.

The analysis is fully declared, moisture at 8.0% included, so the dry matter column rests on printed figures rather than an assumption. The nutritional additive panel is dosed in full, with vitamin A at 15500 IU, vitamin D3 at 1000 IU, zinc at 132 mg and manganese at 50 mg per kg.

£4.87 a kilo, sold in 3kg, 10kg and 15kg bags.

Because this kibble is dense, the daily gram figure for a growing pup is smaller than a lighter food would ask for, and it keeps moving anyway as your pup gains. Begin with the chart on the bag, then adjust to the condition of your pup.