Royal Canin Skin Care review

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, wheat gluten*, rice, manioc (tapioca), animal fats, maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, minerals, beet pulp, soya oil, fish oil, vegetable fibres, linseed, mono - and diglycerides of palmitic and stearic acids esterified with citric acid, fructo-oligo-saccharides, borage oil, marigold meal.

Maize opens the label with wheat gluten behind it, then rice and manioc, which the pack also names as tapioca. No meat is named anywhere on the list. The animal contribution arrives as animal fats and hydrolysed animal proteins, neither tied to a species, with fish oil further down. An owner tracking one particular protein has only those broad categories to work from.

The entries the range takes its character from sit lower down. Fish oil, linseed and borage oil are all present, borage being a familiar source of gamma linolenic acid and linseed carrying the plant form of omega 3, with marigold meal at the end. What the label shows is that all three are in the recipe, without a percentage printed against any of them.

Fibre comes from beet pulp and vegetable fibres, and fructo-oligo-saccharides are listed as the prebiotic. Two entries are there for the manufacturing and not the dog. The mono and diglycerides esterified with citric acid hold the fats evenly through the kibble, and clinoptilolite at 5 g per kilo is a mineral clay printed under technological additives.

On the analysis, protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter with fat at 17.4%, crude fibre at 2.2% and the carbohydrate estimate at 49.3%. Energy is put at 375 kcal per 100g, and that one is an estimate rather than a figure the pack declares. A carbohydrate share at that level follows from a recipe led by maize and rice, and it is how the food has been designed rather than a slip in the formulation.

The added panel prints vitamin A at 29000 IU per kilo and vitamin D3 at 800, with zinc at 151 mg and manganese at 59 mg among the trace minerals. The bag's own table asks 180 grams a day at 10kg and 510 grams at 40kg. Whether this recipe earns a place in your dog's routine is for the vet handling the skin work to answer.

It is sold in 2kg and 11kg bags, at £5.92 a kilo. Feeding a 15kg dog 224 grams a day puts that at roughly £1.32 a day.