Royal Canin X-Small Puppy review

The band here is Average, one step under the Good the typical puppy dry food occupies, with the pillars split between Average and Good.

What holds this one down is the same thing throughout the range: unnamed meat and fat sources, a cereal middle carrying two gluten fractions, and a growth panel with no calcium on it. In fairness the analysis is on the strong side, protein at 33.7% of dry matter, fat at 21.7% and a starch load below the category typical. The food itself does more than the label admits to.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry protein, rice, maize, animal fats, wheat gluten*, maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, beet pulp, minerals, soya oil, psyllium husks and seeds, fish oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides and betaglucans) (0.30%), algal oil Schizochytrium sp. (source of DHA), Yucca Schidigera juice, marigold meal.

Dehydrated poultry protein heads the list. The dried form is the useful one, since its declared weight sits near what really lands in the bowl. Poultry is a family name that can cover any domestic fowl, and the bag never narrows it. Together with the unnamed animal fats and hydrolysed animal proteins, that is the whole transparency story of this recipe.

Rice, maize and two gluten fractions carry the rest. Wheat gluten and maize gluten are concentrated plant proteins. They lift the protein reading with no meat behind them, and a dog draws less from them than from an animal source. Beet pulp works alongside psyllium husks and seeds on the fibre, and psyllium is the soluble kind that helps a young digestion hold together.

The nutrient side is better thought through. The label names algal oil from Schizochytrium as its DHA source, DHA being the omega 3 tied to brain and eye development in young dogs. Fish oil adds more of the same family. Fructo-oligo-saccharides sit with a hydrolysed yeast at 0.30%. That yeast is listed for its manno-oligo-saccharides and betaglucans, and between them they cover the prebiotic side.

With moisture declared at 8.0%, protein converts to 33.7% of dry matter and fat to 21.7%, both strong for a growth food, and carbohydrate to an estimated 34.0%, comfortably under the 39.0% typical. Energy is declared at 405 kcal per 100g. That density is the whole point here, because a very small stomach still has a full day of growing to fuel.

Ash converts to 9.0% of dry matter, a substantial mineral package. No calcium figure is printed alongside it. A toy breed pup is at the forgiving end of that question, because calcium excess causes far more trouble in a fast growing large breed. The number should still be on a bag sold for growth.

The added panel is dosed in print per kilo. Vitamin A stands at 21500 IU and D3 at 1000 IU. Zinc follows at 132 mg, manganese at 52 mg, iron at 40 mg, copper at 12 mg, iodine at 4 mg and selenium at 0.06 mg. Clinoptilolite at 10 g is a manufacturing clay and not a nutrient. Preservatives and antioxidants get category headings with no substance named under them.

£8.43 a kilo, sold in a 1.5 kg bag.

Tiny pups need the scales more than the scoop, so weigh what goes in. The bag's own chart gives your starting amount by age and expected adult weight. Revisit it as the weeks pass.