Royal Canin Sensitivity Control Adult review

Ingredients, as declared: Manioc (tapioca), dehydrated duck protein, vegetable fibres, hydrolysed poultry proteins, minerals, animal fat, beet pulp, fish oil, psyllium husks and seeds, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, marigold meal. Protein sources: dehydrated duck protein (28.0%), hydrolysed poultry proteins (4.2%). Carbohydrate source: tapioca (47.0%).

Manioc, which the label glosses as tapioca, takes first place and is declared as the carbohydrate source at 47.0%. Dehydrated duck protein follows at 28.0%, and hydrolysed poultry proteins come in behind it at 4.2%. Tapioca is starch and very little besides, which is the reason a limited ingredient recipe reaches for it: it brings energy to the bag without bringing another protein along with it.

Duck is the only bird actually named, and the entries beside it deserve a clear look. The hydrolysed poultry proteins stop at a category with no species behind it. Animal fat is listed without a source, and both fish oil and soya oil are on the list. None of those need be a problem. What this label is, though, is an aid to sensitivity work, and that is a different thing from a strict single protein exclusion.

Three fibre sources share the job. The insoluble side is vegetable fibres and beet pulp, the soluble kind comes from psyllium husks and seeds, and fructo-oligosaccharides are in as a prebiotic. Crude fibre converts to 4.9% of dry matter, a fair way above what most dry foods declare, and it goes with the weight management angle the maker gives this recipe.

The dry matter figures read 23.1% protein and 9.9% fat, with crude ash at 8.6% and the carbohydrate estimate at 53.5%, moisture declared at 9.0% and energy at 320 kcal per 100g. Fat and calories are both held down here on purpose, since the recipe is meant to be fed in a normal sized bowl by a dog that may also need to lose a little. Read the low fat entry as a lever rather than a lack.

The added panel gives vitamin A at 31000 IU and vitamin D3 at 700 IU. Then come iron at 38mg, iodine at 3.4mg, copper at 14mg, manganese at 50mg, zinc at 148mg and selenium at 0.24mg per kilogram. Preservatives and antioxidants are named only by category. The feeding table runs from 63 grams a day at 2kg through 287 grams at 15kg to 912 grams at 70kg. One row is odd in the printing: the 80kg row reads 887 grams, below the row above it. Where your own dog lands is a conversation for the practice that recommended the food.

It is bagged in 1.5kg, 7kg and 14kg.