Royal Canin Pug Puppy review

Our Average band is where this kibble lands, with the middle of the puppy dry market a step above it in Good. Transparency comes back Poor, with protein and processing Average and nutritional balance Good.

The pattern behind that is a consistent one: a meat entry that names no species, a starch base built largely from maize fractions, and no calcium in print on a bag sold for growth. Taken alone the analysis is respectable, protein at 31.9% of dry matter and fat at 19.8%, with carbohydrate at 38.3% just under the 39.0% typical.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry protein, rice, maize, animal fats, beet pulp, maize flour, vegetable protein isolate*, maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, fish oil, minerals, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides (0.34%), hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), yeasts extracts (source of betaglucans), borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein).

The list is headed by dehydrated poultry protein, a dried meat. That is the useful kind of meat entry, because dried weight is close to what the finished kibble actually receives. The word poultry covers chicken, turkey and duck. It commits to none of them, and that is the recipe's widest transparency gap.

Rice and maize follow, with maize flour and maize gluten further down and a vegetable protein isolate in between. The gluten is a plant protein concentrate that lifts the number on the analysis, and it is not the equal of protein taken off an animal. The 29.0% on the pack is not all doing the same job.

Beet pulp does the fibre work at a level most puppies handle without fuss. Fish oil and soya oil sit alongside the unnamed animal fats, and borage oil right at the end brings gamma linolenic acid, which recipes aimed at skin comfort tend to include.

On a dry matter basis, with moisture declared at 9.0%, protein converts to 31.9%, fat to 19.8% and carbohydrate to an estimated 38.3%. Energy is our own estimate at 377 kcal per 100g, since the label gives none. That is close to the 376 kcal typical of a puppy kibble, so a pug pup's bowl will not look unusual next to any other.

Calcium does not appear on the panel at all. A pug finishes small, and small breed growth is much more tolerant of an unknown calcium level than large breed growth is. On a food sold specifically for a growing dog, though, the figure ought to be there.

The vitamin and mineral panel is fully declared per kilo: vitamin A at 29500 IU, D3 at 800 IU and E at 600 mg. Then zinc at 135 mg, manganese at 50 mg, iron at 38 mg, copper at 12 mg, iodine at 3.8 mg and selenium at 0.07 mg. Yucca extract at 125 mg is there to soften stool odour, and clinoptilolite at 10 g is a manufacturing clay rather than a nutrient.

£9.16 a kilo, sold in a 1.5 kg bag.

Its chart is written for a pug reaching 8 kg, climbing from 127 g a day to a peak of 161 g before dropping back to 129 g once the fastest growth is behind you. Read it again each month instead of fixing one number in your head.