Royal Canin Puppy Dachshund review

Our Average band is where this food finishes, a step under the typical puppy dry food in Good, with nutritional balance reading Good, protein and processing Average and transparency Poor.

The honest reading is that the recipe does several thoughtful things, joint sources and prebiotics among them. It still builds its protein on categories rather than named animals, and rice and maize fill the middle of the bag. That mix is what the scoring weighs, and carbohydrate at 40.1% of dry matter sits marginally above the 39.0% typical as well.

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

The end of this ingredients list is the interesting part. Hydrolysed crustaceans are the standard route to glucosamine, which is concentrated in shellfish shells, and hydrolysed cartilage is the usual source of chondroitin. Both are joint nutrients seen far more often in senior and large breed foods, so putting them in a long backed puppy's bag shows a sensible instinct. Neither carries a dose, so read them as present rather than measured.

At the top, dehydrated poultry protein does the heavy lifting. Dried meat is the straightforward form of a meat entry, because the weight declared is near enough the weight that ends up in the kibble. Poultry, though, is a term for any domestic fowl, and the bird behind it need not be the same one twice.

After the meat come rice and maize for the starch, then a vegetable protein isolate and beet pulp. There is no wheat on this list and no maize gluten either, which makes the cereal side simpler to read than several of its stablemates.

Fish oil and soya oil sit beside the unnamed animal fats. The fish oil earns its place for a growing pup, bringing the long chain omega 3 fats a young brain and coat draw on. It is also the reason fish shows up on this food's allergen picture.

Protein is 30.0% as fed and fat 16.0%. The label prints no moisture of its own, and on the standard 8% assumption those figures become 32.6% and 17.4% of dry matter. Energy is declared at 389 kcal per 100g and carbohydrate works out at 40.1% of dry matter.

A calcium figure is nowhere on it. For a breed that finishes small the consequences of that unknown are limited, since it is fast growing large breeds where calcium balance does the real damage. On a bag sold for growth, though, it is the first line many owners look for, and it is not here.

The added panel is dosed in full per kilo: vitamin A at 27000 IU, D3 at 700 IU and E at 550 mg. The minerals follow, with manganese at 52 mg, iron at 40 mg, zinc at 110 mg, copper at 12 mg, iodine at 4 mg and selenium at 0.09 mg. The panel ends with yucca extract at 125 mg, a plant extract that helps keep stool odour down.

£9.16 a kilo, sold in a 1.5 kg bag.

A growing pup's portions change faster than most owners expect. Follow the chart on the bag, and every couple of weeks run your hands over your pup's ribs to check it.