Royal Canin Mini Dermacomfort review

This recipe comes out in our Average band, a step below the Good band the typical adult dry food holds. The distance comes almost entirely from the animal side. There is no named meat at all. Much of the 27.7% of dry matter protein comes from a vegetable protein isolate, with maize gluten adding more, and the only animal entries name nothing more specific than the word animal. The plant load itself is ordinary for a kibble: estimated carbohydrate at 46.5% of dry matter sits almost exactly on the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. None of that undoes the skin thinking, which is real and reads as the whole point of the recipe.

Ingredients, as declared: rice, vegetable protein isolate*, wheat, animal fats, maize gluten, husked oats, maize, hydrolysed animal proteins, minerals, soya oil, beet pulp, fish oil, flax seeds, fructo-oligo-saccharides, mono - and diglycerides of palmitic and stearic acids esterified with citric acid, borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein).

Rice heads the list, and it is a sound base for a kibble aimed at sensitive dogs, cooking down easily and rarely troubling anyone. Husked oats appear further down and do a similar job while bringing more fibre with them. Wheat and maize sit between the two, so the cereal content is spread across the list rather than concentrated in one place.

The protein story here is unusual. A vegetable protein isolate sits second and maize gluten fifth. Between them they supply a large part of the 25.5% on the panel, and neither one is meat. Maize processing leaves maize gluten behind, and it is used here to top up protein. Dogs handle it less readily than protein taken off an animal. Hydrolysed animal proteins appear lower down, where they are working mainly on palatability.

The skin case rests on the oils, and they are a well chosen set. Fish oil supplies the long chain omega 3s, with flax seeds adding the plant form. Borage oil is a rich source of gamma linolenic acid, the omega 6 most often reached for when skin is the concern. Marigold extract closes the list, and it supplies lutein.

The mineral panel does real work behind the name on the bag. Zinc is dosed at 146 mg per kilo, iron at 67 mg and manganese at 66 mg, with vitamin A at 29000 IU. Zinc and vitamin A both matter a great deal to skin condition, so finding them dosed at these levels is consistent with what the recipe says it is for.

The limitation to hold in mind is that nothing on the animal side has a name. Animal fats and hydrolysed animal proteins could come from any species, and there is no meat entry at all beyond them. For most dogs that is a detail. For a dog whose skin trouble might be food related, it means this recipe can support the skin but cannot help you identify what set the trouble off.

£7.12 a kilo, sold in 3kg and 8kg bags.

On the standard comparison, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 210 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), giving £1.49 a day. Dogs on a small breed recipe weigh far less than that: the label asks 91 grams for a 6kg dog and 133 grams for a 10kg one.