Royal Canin Yorkshire Terrier Adult review

This finishes in our Average band, while the typical adult dry food finishes a band higher in Good. On paper the analysis reads well, with protein at 30.4% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate at 41.2% against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. The catch is where the protein comes from. Wheat gluten in second place means plant protein is propping that figure up, and a dog makes more complete use of meat protein than of gluten. Add animal entries that never name their species and the band follows. As a daily bowl for a yorkie who enjoys it, none of that stops it holding up.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry proteins, wheat gluten*, rice, animal fats, maize, maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, vegetable fibres, beet pulp, minerals (including pentasodium triphosphate (0.35%)), fish oil, soya oil, yeasts products, dried tomato pulp (source of lycopene), fructo-oligosaccharides, yeasts (source of manno-oligosaccharides), borage oil (0.1%), glucosamine from fermentation, marigold meal, hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin). * L.I.P.: protein selected for its very high digestibility.

Dehydrated poultry proteins lead, which is a promising start, and then wheat gluten arrives second. Gluten is close to pure protein, so its position tells you a great deal about how the pack gets to 28.0%, or 30.4% of dry matter. Meat protein and wheat protein are not interchangeable for a dog, and the honest reading of that headline sits a little below the number itself.

There is an asterisk on the label, and the note it points to is about protein selected for its very high digestibility. It sits with the wheat gluten, not with the poultry, which is worth a second glance if you took the claim to be about the bird.

Rice, maize and maize gluten complete the cereal side. Estimated carbohydrate comes out at 41.2% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, so by kibble standards this is not a starch-heavy recipe. Vegetable fibres and beet pulp bring crude fibre to 3.0%, a sensible amount for a small dog's digestion.

The coat and joint extras are where the breed thinking shows itself. Borage oil at 0.1% carries gamma linolenic acid. Fish oil handles the marine omega 3s, and lycopene arrives with the dried tomato pulp. On the joint side there is glucosamine from fermentation and hydrolysed cartilage supplying chondroitin. No dose is printed for either, so they read as a helpful extra and not a measured treatment.

Yeasts appear twice, once as yeasts products and once as a manno-oligosaccharide source, with fructo-oligosaccharides alongside them, all feeding the gut. The animal entries stay unnamed throughout, which is standard practice for the brand and invisible to most dogs, though it does mean the label cannot answer a question about one specific bird.

In 1.5kg and 7.5kg bags, at £6.98 a kilo.

Against the standard reference we use across every dry food, a 15kg adult in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). On that basis the figure comes to 219 grams and £1.53 a day. A yorkie is nowhere near that size, and the label asks 47 grams a day at 2kg and 79 grams at 4kg, which is the range your own dog will sit in.