Royal Canin is a well known brand of dog food, founded in 1968 by a French vet. They are best known for making breed specific formulas and also for their size specific Royal Canin Puppy Food.
The brand has garnered a reputation for offering pet food that combines scientific research with the practical needs of pets at every stage of a dog's life.
Let's take a look at the different options available and see what makes this brand a popular choice among pet parents.
Royal Canin Dry Puppy Food
Top 5 Label Ingredients: Dehydrated Poultry Protein, Rice, Animal Fats, Wheat Gluten, Maize
Type: Dry Food
Made For: All puppies from small to large breeds
Age Range: From 8 weeks to 10-15 months (size dependent).
There are four different types of Royal Canin Puppy Food, depending on the size of your fully grown puppy:
- X-Small
- Mini
- Medium
- Maxi
Here is a bit more detail showing a few popular breeds and the size category for them:
| Size Category | Explanation | Examples of Breeds |
|---|---|---|
| Mini Puppy | Royal Canine Puppy Food Mini is designed for small breed puppies with an adult weight up to 10 kg. Recommended up to 10 months old. | Chihuahua, Pomeranian, Yorkshire Terrier |
| Medium Puppy | Royal Canine Puppy Food Medium is for medium-sized breeds whose adult weight is expected to be between 11 kg and 25 kg. Recommended up to 12 months old. | Beagle, Border Collie, English Bulldog |
| Maxi Puppy | Created for large breed puppies that are expected to have an adult weight between 26 kg and 44 kg. Recommended up to 15 months old. | Golden Retriever, Boxer, Rottweiler |
| Giant Puppy | Designed for giant breed puppies that are expected to weigh over 45 kg in adulthood. Recommended up to 15 months old. | Great Dane, Saint Bernard, Mastiff |
Something to note is that Royal Canin has different upper age limits for their puppy food range. This is dependent on the size category and is not something I have seen other manufacturers do.
The reason behind this is that smaller breeds tend to grow rapidly and will reach adulthood quicker than the larger breeds. Hence, their special nutrition needs as puppies end sooner.
As puppy food is formulated for the initial rapid phase of growth, once the dog reaches adulthood, their nutritional needs change. They should therefore be transitioned on to adult dog food to maintain an optimum health.
When looking at the four different products, each of these is tailored with the kibble size, shape, and texture suited to the breed's jaw structure and biting capacity. This attention to detail not only enhances palatability but also aids digestion.
Breed specific diets
In addition to the already mentioned size-based variants Royal Canin also provides breed-specific diets. There are three of these:
- German Shepherd Puppy
- Labrador Retriever Puppy
- Golden Retriever Puppy
These formulations cater to the unique nutritional needs and health concerns of specific breeds. For instance, German Shepherds have sensitive digestive systems.
This specific puppy food is formulated with highly digestible proteins and specific fibers to support digestive health and maintain a balanced intestinal flora.
The Goldern Retriever puppy food shape has been designed to be easy to chew for their sensitive milk teeth.
Notable differences between the two include variations in kibble shape and sizes as you can see above.
What you may have noticed is that while other puppy food producers focus on differentiating their products by taste, Royal Canin has chosen not to do so.
In fact they focus on the arguably more important areas such as the nutritional requirements and the size of the kibble, which affects chewing and digestion.
Royal Canin Puppy Food for French Bulldog
Since Frenchies have become so popular, even outranking the Labrador Retriever as the most popular dog in the United States, Royal Canin have now released a specific formula just for them.
The semilunar shapes are designed to be easily chewable by the Frenchie. Royal Canin say they are best suited for the brachycephalic jaws of the breed and this helps nutrient intake and adequate chewing.
This French Bulldog specific food is advised to be used up to 12 months, after which they can be changed to adult dog food.
Some disadvantages of this dry Royal Canin Puppy food is that it's not really hypoallergenic. In fact, Wheat Gluten comes up as the fourth ingredient on the label.
This is still going to be fine in the majority of cases, but it's good to keep this in mind if your dog has any digestive or other allergy symptoms after eating.
Alternatively, you could try adding some dog probiotics to the food. Specially formulated canine probiotics can help improve the gut balance between the good and the bad bugs.
A lot of the digestive problems and intolerances can be fixed by restoring the normal gut flora, just like in us humans!
Royal Canin Wet Puppy Food
Rating: stars stars stars stars stars
Top 5 Label Ingredients: Meat and animal derivatives, oils and fats, cereals, vegetable protein extracts, minerals
Type: Wet Food
Made For: All puppies from small to large breeds
Age Range: From 8 weeks to 10-15 months (size dependent).
Similar to their dry food range, their wet food is also available in different chunk sizes depending on the fully grown size. However, there are only three types:
- Mini
- Medium
- Maxi
Royal Canin does not go into much detail about the percentage breakdown of their ingredients.
As you can see above, the meat and animal derivatives with the highest protein is rated as the top ingredient, but we don't know the total proportion of these.
They do however produce a useful analytical constituents breakdown. This example below is for their Medium wet puppy food.
The Royal Canine Mini Puppy Food and the maxi wet puppy food are very similar in terms of their analytical constituents.
The biggest different is just the size of the chunks.
What does Meat and Animal Derivatives Mean?
Well, this part may not sound too appetizing. Animal derivatives refers to what's left of slaughtered animals after the prime parts have been removed e.g. breast, wings, etc. Essentially, this comprises of the parts of the animal that are not usually used in the human chain.
This means that in addition to organs, the item could also include parts of animals' feet, carcasses and pretty much anything in between.
This may not sound great, but these parts are still rich in protein, so they can be good for a developing puppy, from a nutrition perspective.
The caveat is that carcasses and other by products used in this kind of dog food includes proteins from connective tissues. These tend to be less digestible and have a less optimal amino acid profile so the quality of the protein is lower.
However, when ground, carcasses are a good source of calcium and phosphorous which are needed in a puppy's development.
If you would rather have a single source of protein, Wainwrights puppy food do just that. Instead of using meat derivatives, they only use a singular source of meat, and not this mixture of leftovers.
Royal Canin Puppy Food Feeding Guide
Each of the different types of Royan Canin food have slightly different feeding guides. These are easily found on the back of the packaging and are quite straight forward.
As is standard for these sort of foods, the requirements are based on the dog's full grown weight.
Here is what this looks like for the Dry Maxi Puppy Food:
It's also useful that it gives you different tables for feeding kibble only OR kibble + wet food.
Where can you buy Royal Canin Puppy Food?
Royal Canin Puppy Food is widely available from online retailers, but also specialised retailers such as Pets at Home.
You can of course also buy it from their own website.
Supermarkets such as Waitrose and Sainsbury's also stock it, but you might find that the price is better if you buy it from either Amazon or pet specific retailers.
Before you go...
Royal Canin Puppy food is a very popular food choice for developing puppies. Their vet approved formulations are high in protein and are of high quality. The company has also been around since the 1960s so they must be doing something right to stick around for that many years!
If you're still undecided about what to feed your puppy, take a look at our overall puppy food article which lists all the major brands available in the UK. We also compare them and give you our expert opinion on what's best and what isn't.
