Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Satiety Weight Management review

Ingredients, as declared: Vegetable fibres, dehydrated poultry protein, wheat gluten*, manioc (tapioca), maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, wheat, maize, animal fats, beet pulp, fish oil, minerals, psyllium husks and seeds, soya oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, glucosamine from fermentation, marigold meal, hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Vegetable fibres take first place on the list, ahead of dehydrated poultry protein, with wheat gluten third. Manioc, given here under its other name of tapioca, and maize gluten follow, so the top of this label is mostly plant fractions with a dried poultry protein set among them.

Poultry names the whole bird family and not one bird in it. Further down the animal entries read as hydrolysed animal proteins, animal fats and hydrolysed cartilage. None of those say what they came from. Fish oil is the single animal ingredient whose origin is plain on the page. An owner tracking one particular meat will want to know that before starting.

Crude fibre is declared at 17.0% and converts to 18.5% of dry matter. Fibre at that level is the mechanism a satiety diet works through, filling the bowl without bringing energy along with it, so it is the intended build rather than an oddity. Behind the leading vegetable fibres come beet pulp and then psyllium husks and seeds. They add to what those fibres are already doing, and fructo-oligosaccharides sit further down.

Protein is printed at 30.0%, which comes out at 32.6% of dry matter, and fat at 9.5%, or 10.3% dried down. The carbohydrate estimate lands at 32.3% of dry matter and the energy figure is 256 kcal per 100g. Fat that low with fibre that high gets a dog through a full portion on less energy. Whether those proportions belong in your dog's plan is settled with the vet who put him on it.

Glucosamine from fermentation and hydrolysed cartilage, named as the chondroitin source, close the ingredient list, both without a percentage beside them. The nutritional additives do carry doses per kilo. Vitamin A is at 19000 IU and vitamin D3 at 1000 IU. The trace minerals run zinc at 137 mg, manganese at 46 mg, iron at 35 mg, copper at 11 mg, iodine at 3.5 mg and selenium at 0.06 mg. Preservatives and antioxidants appear as headings with nothing named under them.

There is no printed table behind the portion figures here. They are worked from the food's energy value, and on that basis a 15kg dog eats somewhere around 328 grams a day. The amount fed is the treatment itself on a weight loss diet. Go by the number your vet writes down.

It is sold in 1.5kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.