Royal Canin X-Small Ageing 12+ review

Our scoring gives this food the Average band, and the typical adult dry food sits one band higher, in Good. The order of the list accounts for most of that: rice and wheat flour both arrive before the poultry, so the plant side supplies more of the recipe than the meat does. Estimated carbohydrate at 49.5% of dry matter runs above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Set against what the bag is actually for, keeping a very old and very small dog eating comfortably, the band understates how useful it can be in that particular house.

Ingredients, as declared: Rice, wheat flour, dehydrated poultry proteins, maize flour, animal fats, wheat, maize gluten, wheat gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, chicory pulp, minerals (including pentasodium triphosphate (0.35%)), fish oil, psyllium husks and seeds, soya oil, yeasts products, fructo-oligosaccharides, algal oil Schizochytrium sp. (source of EPA and DHA), yeasts (source of manno-oligosaccharides), marigold meal.

Rice, wheat flour, then dehydrated poultry proteins is the opening order, and it says plainly that this is a cereal-led recipe with meat worked into it rather than the other way about. Protein still finishes at 24.0%, or 26.1% of dry matter on the declared 8.0% moisture, with maize gluten and wheat gluten helping it get there from the plant side.

Fat is deliberately restrained at 16.0%, or 17.4% of dry matter. Energy at 379 kcal per 100g is modest for a kibble, and that suits a dog whose walks have shortened. Crude ash at 4.8%, or 5.2% of dry matter, is a light mineral load, and lighter is generally welcome in an old dog.

The digestive support comes in layers. Chicory pulp brings inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides add a second prebiotic. Yeasts contribute manno-oligosaccharides and psyllium husks bring soluble fibre. For an elderly dog whose digestion has become less predictable, that is a thoughtful set of ingredients to find on one label.

Fish oil and algal oil carry the omega 3s between them, the algal oil going straight to the EPA and DHA an ageing body uses rather than asking it to convert anything first. Marigold meal contributes lutein, the pigment the eye uses. Pentasodium triphosphate at 0.35% is the plaque entry, and it earns its place in a mouth that has already done twelve years of work.

The unnamed animals are the honest catch. Family is as far as the label goes with the poultry, with the animal fats and with the hydrolysed proteins. Nothing here can clear a dog with a known problem with one particular bird. For the great majority of elderly toy dogs that will simply never come up.

£8.06 a kilo, sold in a 1.5kg bag.

Measured against the dog we use as a yardstick for every food, a 15kg adult in moderate condition needing roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at 222 grams and £1.79 a day. The dogs this bag is written for eat a fraction of that. At low activity the label's table starts at 24 grams for a 1kg dog and reaches 68 grams at 4kg.