Royal Canin Mini Starter review

In our scoring this one comes out Average, while the typical adult dry food holds our Good band. Almost all of that difference is about naming rather than nourishment. Poultry names no bird. Behind the animal fats and behind the hydrolysed animal proteins there is nothing named at all, and wheat gluten raises the protein figure without bringing meat with it. The analysis tells a rather different story: protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter, fat to 23.9%, and estimated carbohydrate to just 32.9% against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. That is a genuinely meat leaning balance for a kibble, and it explains why the food feels so much richer in the bowl than the band on its own would suggest.

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

Dehydrated poultry protein sits first and rice second, and the distance between those two is what gives this recipe its unusual balance. Protein finishes at 30% and fat at 22% as fed, with estimated carbohydrate at only 30.2%. A good deal more of the bowl comes from the animal side than a small breed kibble normally manages.

That fat level is the defining figure. At 421 kcal per 100g this is a dense food, which is the point when the dog eating it has a small stomach and a large demand. It also means portions want measuring properly, because the gap between a level scoop and a heaped one matters far more here than on a lighter recipe.

The gut ingredients are the thoughtful part. Hydrolysed yeast at 0.30% supplies manno-oligo-saccharides and betaglucans, fructo-oligo-saccharides sit alongside it, and a butyric acid salt feeds the cells lining the gut wall. Beet pulp handles the fibre, and crude fibre is deliberately low at 1.3% so the recipe stays easy to digest.

Fish oil and algal oil from Schizochytrium both appear, and the label points to the algal oil for DHA. DHA is the omega 3 that a developing brain and eye draw on most, and it is far better to see it printed than implied.

Two entries need a plain reading. Wheat gluten lifts the panel figure without adding meat, since it is a concentrated plant protein. Crude ash at 8.5% is on the high side, and that is a generous mineral inclusion. Neither troubles a healthy dog, but both are worth registering. The trace minerals themselves are dosed in print, zinc at 131 mg and manganese at 52 mg per kilo among them.

£7.12 a kilo, sold in 1kg, 4kg and 8kg bags.

On our standard basis a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need about 200 grams a day of this recipe, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.42 a day. A fraction of that goes into a small dog's bowl, and with a kibble this dense the scoop wants levelling off each time.