Royal Canin Rottweiler Adult review

Our reading of the label puts this in our Average band, with most adult dry foods a level up in Good. The pillars show where the split falls. Protein and processing comes out Poor, because so much of the list is either unnamed or plant based, while nutritional balance, which looks at the numbers rather than the names, comes out Good. Estimated carbohydrate at 40.3% of dry matter is genuinely below the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, and fat at 21.7% of dry matter suits a dog carrying real weight about. The band here is a verdict on transparency more than on substance.

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

Rice leads and dehydrated poultry protein follows, so the calories and the protein arrive from opposite ends of that pairing. Dried meat loses its water before mixing. The weight the label declares is close to the weight that lands in the bowl. On the finished analysis protein is 26.0% and fat 20.0%, or 28.3% and 21.7% of dry matter. Those are fair numbers for a dog built out of muscle.

Vegetable protein isolate sits fourth and does some of the protein work the meat gets credit for, with maize behind it. Between the two, the plant side of this recipe contributes more than the front of the list implies. Even so, estimated carbohydrate finishes at 40.3% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, so the overall balance reads better than a quick scan of the ingredients would suggest.

A lot of owners pick this bag for the joint entries. Glucosamine arrives through hydrolysed crustaceans, whose shells are the usual commercial source, and chondroitin through hydrolysed cartilage. Neither carries a printed dose. Treat them as steady background support and not a measured course, and note the shellfish origin if anyone in the house is watching for it.

The standout dosed addition is L-carnitine at 830 mg per kilo. It is an amino acid that helps turn stored fat into usable energy, and a common inclusion where a large frame needs keeping lean. Tea extract at 150 mg brings polyphenols, dehydrated tomato adds antioxidants of its own, and hydrolysed yeast supplies manno-oligosaccharides, a prebiotic aimed squarely at the gut.

The label stays quiet on which bird went in, which animal the fat came from and what the hydrolysed proteins were made from. That is normal practice for the brand and it troubles the great majority of dogs not at all. It does mean this food cannot be used to prove or clear a single protein, which is the one job it is not equipped for.

£5.54 a kilo, sold in a single 12kg bag.

For a like for like comparison, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 209 grams a day here, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £1.16 a day. A rottweiler of course eats a great deal more. At low activity the label asks 375 grams at 40kg and 444 grams at 50kg. Scale the daily figure up to the dog you actually have.