Our Pet Food – Ingredients and Nutrients
Science speaks when pets can’t
ROYAL CANIN® diets provide precise nutritional solutions for your pet’s needs. Each of our products are based on nearly 50 years of science and observation of cats and dogs. We also have strong partnerships with leading veterinary universities, veterinary surgeons, qualified nutritionists and breeders worldwide.
We’re constantly expanding and improving on this knowledge in order to keep providing your pet with food that best meets their dietary needs.
We know how confusing pet food packaging can be and we want to help you understand what goes into ROYAL CANIN® products to ensure your pet receives complete, balanced and high-quality nutrition.
Dehydrated poultry protein
This simply means that the poultry meat has been heated and dried to remove most of the moisture and fat. This leaves us with a high quality, concentrated protein source.
Did you know? Dehydrated poultry protein doesn’t weigh as much as whole chicken as it’s a concentrated protein source. It is not always the first ingredient on the composition list because, by law, ingredients must be listed in descending order of pre-cooked weight and of course dehydrated meat is lighter than non-dehydrated.
Meat and animal derivatives
This is a labelling term set in legislation for specific categories of ingredient and does not indicate poorer quality nutrients. It simply means that the ingredients are from animal origin, rather than plants or vegetables.
Animal by-products
The term ‘by-product’ is not to do with the animal itself but purely means that it is surplus to the human food chain. This is a sustainable way of sourcing ingredients as it uses the parts that we as humans, do not typically use for our food. For example, as well as muscle meat, it would include offal such as liver and kidney that are equally good sources of quality nutrients for your pet. It DOES NOT include parts such as hooves, claws and beaks.
Grains
Cereals or grains such as wheat, maize (corn) and rice provide a wealth of nutrients for your pets. They are excellent sources of highly digestible protein as well as providing many vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and antioxidants.
Food ‘allergies’
Pets can develop food allergies (also called adverse food reactions) to any protein, irrespective of the source. True adverse food reactions are not only very rare but are also incredibly difficult to diagnose without a specially designed feeding trial, normally lasting 8 to 12 weeks under veterinary supervision.
Carbohydrates
Although carbohydrates are not considered an essential nutrient, they are a very good source of energy and fibres including prebiotics to feed the ‘good’ bacteria in the gut.
Science tells us that dogs adapted genetically during the domestication process to be able to eat and digest carbohydrates (Source: E. Axelsson, 2013).
Our approach
ROYAL CANIN® takes a tailored health nutrition approach. This means that our foods will supply more than just the basic daily nutritional requirements of dogs and cats.
We also include high-quality, scientifically-proven nutrients that nourish and support important areas of the body, such as the joints, skin and coat, vital organs and many more.
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