Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Neutered Adult Small Dog review

Ingredients, as declared: Barley, maize, dehydrated pork protein, dehydrated poultry protein, wheat flour, vegetable fibres, wheat gluten*, hydrolysed animal proteins, animal fats, minerals, chicory pulp, fish oil, soya oil, psyllium husks and seeds (0.5%), fructo-oligo-saccharides (0.49%), marigold meal.

Barley leads and maize follows, with dehydrated pork protein and dehydrated poultry protein third and fourth. Pork is named to the species, poultry is not, and wheat flour and wheat gluten sit behind them both. Hydrolysed animal proteins and animal fats sit further down and do the palatability and energy work. Neither is named to a species.

The analysis is where this one shows what it is for. Fat is declared at 11.0% and converts to 12.2% of dry matter, while protein comes out at 33.1% and crude fibre at 7.3%, with energy at 330 kcal per 100g. Fat pulled back with fibre raised and protein held up is the standard construction for a food meant to fill a dog on fewer calories, and none of those figures landed there by accident.

The fibre is doing real work and comes from more than one place. Vegetable fibres head it, chicory pulp adds inulin, which the gut bacteria ferment, and psyllium husks and seeds are printed at 0.5% as the soluble contribution. Fructo-oligo-saccharides are declared separately at 0.49%.

Ash is declared at 7.3% and converts to 8.1% of dry matter, a reading that follows from the mineral and fibre load rather than from meat content. Calcium works out at 0.86% once the water is off. The added panel prints vitamin A at 29500 IU per kilo, copper at 11 mg, zinc at 132 mg and selenium at 0.08 mg, with clinoptilolite at 5 g under technological additives.

The feeding guide is a small dog guide and stops where the range does, running from 48 grams a day for a 2kg dog to 162 grams at 10kg. A dog heavier than the table covers takes its daily amount from the vet, not from the pack. For a diet fed to a plan that is the right way round in any case.

It comes in 800g, 1.5kg, 3.5kg and 8kg bags.