Royal Canin Dog Food: Review

Royal Canin is a highly popular dog food that’s owned and produced by the Mars company, alongside global best-sellers Pedigree and Whiskas.

Like most big-brand names, they offer a huge variety of formulas, with 50 wet foods and over 80 dry kibbles to choose from. Unfortunately, however, there’s not much diversity in their ingredients, with the majority of products containing the same low-quality mix of meat by-products, meat meals, and processed corn.

Founded in the late 60s in France, Royal Canin’s first formulas were developed by a veterinary surgeon who noticed the positive effects of feeding dogs limited ingredient or allergen-free diets. From there, Royal Canin grew to become a European leader, before being sold to Mars in the 90s.

Today, Royal Canin maintains an interest in the science behind animal nutrition. They produce the scientific quarterly Veterinary Focus and have published around 1500 papers from their  Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition.

This creates a strange conflict in Royal Canin’s brand. On the one hand, they advocate for better nutrition and produce a Veterinary product line that’s tailored to specific canine conditions. But on the other, their regular formulas make use of ingredients that only a small minority of animal healthcare practitioners would ever consider healthy.

Unlike many other brands, Royal Canin doesn’t have a ‘made in the USA’ guarantee. The company does operate several US-based plants, but they also use facilities in South Africa, Brazil, Russia, and China.

The top-selling dry dog food for Royal Canin is specially formulated for small breeds. It is suitable for dogs between 10 months to 8 years old, and between 9 and 22 lbs. It does cover the nutritional needs of small breed dogs. However, the quality of ingredients leaves something to be desired. The ingredients that we don’t like in this recipe are Chicken by-product meal and corn gluten meal. By-product meal is a mix of the most unsavory parts of chickens, and a corn gluten meal can be upsetting on a dog’s stomach. 

The guaranteed analysis of this product shows that it is around the industry average with 25% protein, 14% fat. It does have a slightly higher fiber %. We however recommended checking out our best dog foods, to find a better alternative.

Customer reviews:

“We use this kibble for treats. The dogs love them and it encourages them to come when called.”

“Diarrhea always when my dog eats this. Corn is one of the major ingredients which is hard to digest. My vet recommended it but I finally just bought another brand and found instantly that his poops became solid.”

Guaranteed analysis:

• Protein (min): 25.0%
• Fat (min): 14.0%
• Fiber (max): 3.4%
• Moisture (max): 10.0%

Nutritional Info
Ingredients: Corn, chicken by-product meal, brewers rice, brown rice, corn gluten meal, chicken fat, natural flavors, dried plain beet pulp, wheat gluten, fish oil, vegetable oil, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, salt, fructooligosaccharides, sodium tripolyphosphate, L-lysine, choline chloride, DL-methionine, monocalcium phosphate, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), biotin, D-calcium pantothenate, vitamin A acetate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), niacin supplement, folic acid, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate], magnesium oxide, L-carnitine, rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid.

Caloric Content

3744 kcal/kg, 359 kcal/cup

Royal Canin’s top seller for wet dog foods is a formula made specifically for Golden Retrievers. However, upon inspection, this product seems to fall flat. It has low amounts of protein and fats, that aren’t even competitive with industry averages. While different breeds of dogs may require different nutritional needs, the research on this is not thorough enough. Essentially they are using this recipe as more a marketing gimmick.

In the first 5 ingredients you have two types of by-products, which makes this product have a less than ideal source of protein and fats, made from the worst bits of chicken and pork. We suggest finding a better wet dog food for your Golden Retriever, and steering clever of the Royal Canin product. Most of the positive reviews from this product are in regard to taste/texture, which is not good enough in our opinion.

Customer reviews:

“My dog normally eats RCGR dry kibble. This was an easy transition and he likes it. Shipping was extremely fast.”

“My golden retriever loves the mixture with both dry and wet and I give it as a treat. He loves it!” 

Guaranteed analysis: 

• Protein (min): 6.3%
• Fat (min): 1.7%
• Fiber (max): 2.7%
• Moisture (max): 81.0%

Nutritional Info
Ingredients: Water sufficient for processing, pork by-products, chicken by-products, pork liver, brewers rice flour, corn flour, powdered cellulose, wheat gluten, vegetable oil, fish oil, carrageenan, sodium silico aluminate, natural flavors, potassium chloride, tomato pomace, taurine, carob bean gum, guar gum, sodium tripolyphosphate, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), biotin, niacin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement], calcium carbonate, L-carnitine, citric acid, glucosamine hydrochloride, sodium carbonate, trace minerals [zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, zinc proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, calcium iodate], magnesium oxide, choline chloride, marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), chondroitin sulfate.

Caloric Content

780 kcal/kg, 300 kcal/can

There are far too many Royal Canin dry foods to consider individually, but checking levels of protein, fat, and fiber across the range shows that dogs eating these formulas do receive a nutritional intake similar to industry average numbers.

What concerns about Royal Canin kibble are not the levels of nutrients, however, but where those nutrients are coming from. Several formulas contain no whole meat at all, and often use a non-meat food, like corn, as the primary ingredient.

Also concerning is the presence of chicken by-product meal, which is a low-quality animal product made from rendered, non-meat parts carcasses. By-product meal has a non-specific ingredient list but can contain bones, organs, undeveloped eggs, and even a small amount of feathers.

On average, Royal Canin’s wet food doesn’t provide as many proteins or fats as other popular brands. Often, slightly lower nutritional levels can actually be a good sign, as it suggests a lack of processed or concentrated ingredients, in favor of moisture-rich whole meats.

This isn’t the case with Royal Canin’s formulas, which are low on nutrients despite being made with named meat by-products, grains, and a heavy dose of flavorings and preservatives.

Some Royal Canin wet food recipes use a significant amount of wheat gluten, which contains high amounts of protein. This can give a false impression that formulas contain more nutritious meat than they actually do.

Royal Canin was involved in the FDA’s 2007 Melamine recall, in which several dogs and cats died from contaminated formulas. The recall was alarmingly widespread and involved most large corporate manufacturing plants.

Since then, the FDA and AVMA’s recall databases don’t show any record of Royal Canin, and a few different Google searches of the brand suggest that the brand’s recipes and production have stayed controversy-free from the last decade.