Royal Canin Rottweiler Puppy review

This lands in our Average band, below the Good band the typical puppy dry food occupies, with nutritional balance reading Good, protein and processing Average, and transparency the one that reads Poor.

It is worth separating two different things. The recipe is clearly built with a heavy breed in mind, and the extras behind it are real: L-carnitine dosed at 300 mg per kilo, joint sources named, a mineral panel printed line by line. What the score reflects is a protein base of unnamed categories, a starch middle of rice, maize and wheat flour, and a growth label that never gives up its calcium.

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

Start with calcium, because on a rottweiler it is the figure that matters most. Large and giant breed puppies grow quickly enough that a calcium level set too high or too low shows up in the skeleton, not in the bowl. That is why growth foods for big dogs are usually expected to print the number. This label does not print it. The bag is sold for a large breed puppy and the chart runs to a 45 kg adult, so the formulation is plainly built for the job. Nothing on the panel lets you check the balance for yourself, though. Rearing a big pup, you would be within your rights to ask the maker directly.

The protein side leads with dehydrated poultry protein, a dried meat whose declared weight carries through to the kibble more faithfully than a fresh meat entry would. Dehydrated pork protein appears further down and is the only meat here named to a species, pork being a good, palatable meat that many dogs have never met before. The hydrolysed animal proteins, further down still, name nothing.

The starch base is rice with maize flour and maize, and a vegetable protein isolate sits third on the list with wheat flour behind the pork. The roughage comes from vegetable fibres and beet pulp, with psyllium husks and seeds bringing a soluble fibre. Fructo-oligo-saccharides at 0.34% and a hydrolysed yeast look after the gut bacteria.

The analysis reads 31.0% protein, 16.0% fat and 7.9% ash as fed. No moisture is declared, so the dry matter conversions rest on the standard 8% assumption for a kibble. That puts protein at 33.7%, fat at 17.4% and carbohydrate at an estimated 38.3%, a shade under the 39.0% typical. Energy is declared at 386 kcal per 100g. That is a moderate figure, and steady growth is exactly what a breed this size wants.

The added panel is thorough, dosed per kilo: vitamin A at 26500 IU, D3 at 700 IU and E at 530 mg. Then come zinc at 135 mg, manganese at 54 mg, iron at 41 mg, copper at 13 mg, iodine at 4.1 mg and selenium at 0.09 mg. L-carnitine at 300 mg is the standout. It sits at the centre of how the body burns fat, and it is a thoughtful inclusion in a food meant to hold a heavy breed lean through growth.

£5.67 a kilo, sold in a 12 kg bag.

The guide on the bag for a dog heading to 45 kg starts at 307 g a day and peaks at 650 g before tapering. With a large breed the taper matters as much as the peak. Follow the chart down as growth slows and let the shape of the dog settle any argument.