Website | Royal Canin |
Available from | Pet Circle |
If I told you I fed rice and corn to my cats you’d think I’m crazy, but if you feed Royal Canin that’s what you’re doing. It doesn’t make sense to feed an obligate carnivore stuff like that, so why do we? The reasons are simple, and can be ballparked into two reasons 👉 (1) products are about profit, and (2) we’re very easily led by corporate marketing. Sad truth is many cat foods are grain-based, and Royal Canin is no exception.
Royal Canin is made by Mars. Did you know that? They make many pet food brands, and this is their most “premium”. Don’t be fooled by the breed-specific formulas either, that’s mostly marketing as well.
Let’s take a look at the Regular Fit Adult formula which can offer us insight into all products in the range…
The first ingredient is dehydrated poultry protein which I have to say sounds like a good start, but in this formula it’s possible the first five ingredients are in relatively equal proportions. Two of those ingredients are maize, but cunningly split into maize and maize gluten to make them appear less significant. If we take these as just “maize” it’s quite possible this outweighs the poultry by almost double. Throw rice into the mix and we’re looking at 3 parts grain to 2 parts animal. Are you starting to feel duped yet?
We also find wheat in the food. A terrible ingredient to feed an obligate carnivore, and one of the most prominent causes of allergies in pets.
Skip to the final ingredient and we see antioxidants. Not “natural antioxidants”, just “antioxidants”. Put it this way, if they were natural they would say so on the label, so just like other Mars products this will very likely be a chemical/synthetic alternative.
Makes you wonder why vets recommend it, but to be fair they see many cats suffering health conditions on worse supermarket kibbles so tend to see an improvement when a cat is switched to Royal Canin. The simple reason is rice and corn are marginally better than ambiguous cereal grains and cereal by-products.
Apparently Royal Canin originated with a vision to be a pet food company grounded in “science”, but what it looks like to me is how much grain you can feed a carnivore and get away with. That’s “science” for you.
Ingredients
dehydrated poultry protein, rice, animal fats, maize, maize gluten, vegetable fibres, hydrolysed animal proteins, vegetable protein isolate*, wheat, beet pulp, yeasts, minerals, soya oil, fish oil, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), marigold extract (source of lutein). ADDITIVES (per kg): Nutritional additives: Vitamin A: 14500 IU, Vitamin D3: 800 IU, E1 (Iron): 35 mg, E2 (Iodine): 3.5 mg, E4 (Copper): 11 mg, E5 (Manganese): 45 mg, E6 (Zinc): 136 mg, E8 (Selenium): 0.09 mg – Preservatives – Antioxidants. ANALYTICAL CONSTITUENTS: Protein: 32% – Fat content: 15% – Crude ash: 6.8% – Crude fiber: 4%. * L.I.P.: protein selected for its very high assimilation
Hi David
Is there any substitution for RC Anallergenic? Thanks
Hi Kar,
Given the main ingredients in Royal Canin Anallergenic are maize starch and feather hydrolysate you have to wonder how beneficial it is to your carnivorous cat!
There’s info on the following guide to hypoallergenic diets, although it’s in respect to dogs. For a cat, avoid grains and high-carbohydrate ingredients as much as possible, and keep moistureless dry food to a minimum if possible. Air/Freeze dried foods are good options for cats with dietary sensitivities, so brands like Frontier Pets, Healthy Active Pet, ZiwiPeak, Raw Meow, or even dry foods like Orijen (tends to be hard to get hold of), Taste of the Wild, ACANA etc (although all dry foods will contain carbohydrate ingredients)
Hi David,
There are many vets and vet nutritionists who would disagree with you on this about Royal Canin or Hills for that matter. Ive directly had several conversations with my vet as to why they only stock those foods for controlled diets. If you are legitimately getting independent testing done out of your own pocket, please publish the actual test reports. I’d be happy to show my Vet and see where she stands on it.
I had an interesting conversation with an ex-Hills rep recently who had advocated the Hills counterpart diets for many years. I asked him a very simple question – should obligate carnivore cats have grain in their diet.
His response was along the lines of how he had often wondered that, and then recalled overhearing some clever Hills scientists in the work canteen about how the best diet for a (diabetic) cat was very similar to that of a mouse.
It’s funny how we so easily overlook the basics.
I have been trying to find reviews on cat food brands found in Australia. I follow All About Cats on Youtube, but they mainly do reviews for American brands, so even if I wanted to buy the brands they say are good, they are not actually available here.
I have read about all the brands that I feed my cats, and Royal Canin is the main one that Vets have recommended since I started having cats 5yrs ago. But 2 out of my 3 cats are starting to get sick of the Dental diet. So I thought it is the perfect time to change!
But I want the best for my cats, so I wanted to read more to be able to make the right decision for them.
The articles in this website have been very helpful, and I have just started ordering the other brands that are the best in Australia. Hopefully my cats would like them!!
Thanks for the feedback Jamie! Yes, you have to wonder how beneficial these “dental” diets are. Simply looking at the ingredients and considering if they sound appropriate for a carnivore makes you wonder why our vets so highly recommend these products!
Hi Pet Food Review team,
Your reviews are absolutely useful! I’m thinking to change to Grain Free dry food, but my cat just lovin Royal Canin… The previous owner has feed him with Royal for at least 1-2 years. I have apprx 1.5kg Royal Canin Indoor left. Can I mix them with other brand Grain Free dry food? I will pick 1 from your top 10 list. I’m thinking to give my cat half Royal Canin Indoor + half Grain Free dry food + ZIWI wet food. Is that ok? I don’t want to waste Royal Canin and want my cat to reduce grain intake ASAP. Thank you.
Hi Stacey, I wouldn’t want you to waste a food you already have, and in any case variety is a good thing. I think the best thing is understanding what’s in the cat foods you’re feeding, particularly Royal Canin Indoor, then making a decision whether to buy it in the future.
Hi Pet Food Review team!
I’m after some advice, I’ve just rescued/ adopted a British Short Hair cat and I’m wondering if the Royal Canin British dry cat food is the best dry food for this particular breed?
Any dry food advice would be fantastic!
Kind regards,
Kelly
Hi Kelly, the top four ingredients are “dehydrated poultry protein, wheat gluten, rice, maize”, possibly in similar amounts, so that’s three grains out of four for an obligate carnivore cat 😉
Thanks for the info- any recommendations for a British short hair cat?
I saw comments below saying to give cats raw chicken wings and necks. I tried giving my cats chicken wings and they just sniffed it and then walked away. I sometimes feed them raw diced chicken breast and they love it. It seemed like the didn’t know what to do with the wing though. How can I get my cats to eat it?
Thankyou for the honesty.
Thanks for all the great info. The mince I got was was a pet food one, can’t remember the brand but it seemed ok!
would love to know about the kidney/renal stuff as we fed our old cat that & she eventually refused it/got sick on it. We now have 2 kittens and would like to prolong their life and quality of life for as long as possible so I don’t want to feed any rubbish. I wonder if cats are truly prone to kidney issues or if it’s just the crap commercial food most of them get.
It’s definitely kibble related, there’s a lot of toxins like heavy metals in it and it’s loaded with grains and even grain free isn’t very good because it’s still carbohydrates. Cats have no biological need for any carbohydrates at all. Feeding a quality canned food like Ziwipeak or K9 Natural both I think are all ages foods and maybe sticking to a raw diet is the best chance at a long and prosperous life for any cat.
Urinary stones or crystals are very common as well among cats fed kibble, they require quiet a lot of water and kibble just doesn’t have any water in it.
The foods you fed to your renal cat actually simply placed a bandaid on the problem, her not wanting to eat it was because the bandaid had essentially fallen off and the problem came back full swing. The best you can do for a renal cat that’s just been diagnosed is to feed a raw diet, they need good quality protein not kibble at all and food with plenty of moisture. You can also add homeopathic renal herbs and the like and they will help too, but with anything homeopathic research is needed to ensure dosage is correct and what not, too bad we don’t have homeopathic supplements here in Australia, we have a few lesser ones but none of the really good ones like America does.
If your still interested in kibble I think Earthborn is the best one because it’s got the highest protein and smallest amount of carbs, but do remember it’s still kibble.
Ziwi air dried would be better but the price might be a bit much, but you could use it sparingly instead of as an actual food.
Hey thanks so much for the great info. We ended up putting her on raw, beef mince and then some chicken mince from a pet stock. She was loving the mince, chicken especially. She’s gone now though, took a bad turn, not sure what and stopped eating, 3 days later we had to take her to the vet. I want to do the best for our new babies, they’re now 4 months old, RSPCA had them on the Royal Canin and I want to get them onto raw asap. I didn’t know if I could but I think “kitten food” is just a marketing ploy. They’ll eat anything really, they were strays maybe that’s why, anyway tried them on a different kibble just to see (can’t remember which – Petstock only had two kitten foods and not the Royal Canin at the time) and also got a wet food which they loved. I’ve now got a couple of supermarket brands kibble and wet food but as long as the raw is ok, whether we get that from a pet shop or make our own, I don’t see why they have to have kibble at all. I’m worried it’s basically Maccas day in day out!
Hi Naomi, seeing as Edanna has already given excellent information, I really don’t have much to add.
Cats being fed high-carbohydrate dry diets lacking in moisture is likely the cause of most renal issues. Most of the dry foods rated highly on this website have excellent wet foods (I simply haven’t had time to review them).
Any natural raw meats, fish, organs, tripe, will go a long way into increasing the health of your cats.
Oh I’m so sorry, that’s unfortunately what the vet diets do though, they bandaid an open wound and then that wound opens wider and then the band aid come off and 99% of the time the pet dies, I wish vets actually knew about the conditions their trying to treat and how to treat them properly, they listen to the big pet feed and I say feed because it’s not food that they sell about what to feed for what condition, instead of researching themselves further to treat the condition naturally they usually don’t and are quiet ignorant, some will scream and make a scene to get their point across. So what? the person wants to feed raw why scream about it? it’s not your pet, let them do what they want, your treating the pet your not owning him lol.
Be careful of some supermarket foods make sure to read the ingredients and not buy any foods with gelling agents or unspecified ingredients like meat just on its own with no animal specified and no by product ones because it could contain anything.
Yeah it could be seen as maccas, I have brands I like and don’t mind using as treats but I wouldn’t give them just kibble twice a day for their entire life, I’m not sure where the peoples heads have gone how they can think that that is healthy in any way. We don’t have a food for us that we can eat that’s like kibble, so yeah common sense out the window haha.
I don’t have personal experience but I do read a lot of reviews, like crazy amounts, the croc is for pets with severe allergies to anything else but if your pet likes it then they can certainly have it, as to if it’s fatty, I’ve heard it’s not.
Turkey is low fat, duck is usually high fat, kangaroo is super lean and very high in protein something that is amazing for cats if they like it.
Heard of minced frames, heard their good for bone content, but I’ve never had good success with frames dogs were always sick from it, so makes you wonder about the quality.
Chicken wings and necks are much better and you could certainly try it, but yes don’t keep it out, let them chew it for 30 mins to an hour and then take it away until tomorrow. Same with the food, don’t free feed, set a time set the food down for a few minutes, pick it up if not eaten and set it down I think 30 mins later, until it’s eaten and then you get them used to a specific time and there’s less chance at weight gain and other problems arising.
Been seeing nothing but good info about Prime100 but I’m not sure they have kitten/cat foods.
Dr B Barf is good, again not sure if they have the cat foods.
But K9 Natural have frozen foods maybe they will have the cat ones available?
Few others but I just don’t know if they have cat foods, I should really check, most of the people I’ve helped had dogs, so I know more about dogs then cats, but I did at some point do a lot of research into cat problems so that I could help as people have cats also. It’s because I started researching pet food ingredients and simply thought of my dogs, I should have gone both ways.
Hi there – could you please advise about the ‘Indoor’ version? As it’s more for cat’s who don’t get as much exercise as those on the ‘fit’ version that you reviewed above, I was just wondering if it would be any better? My cat is an indoor cat.
Seems like same ingredients just in different places on the list, for its price and how much they love to lie about their food you’d be better off buying from someone less akin to killing pets and not giving a damn, looking at you Mars and Purina think we don’t see you?
Blackhawk has good quality foods, Ivory Coat and a lot of others, also to ensure your cat doesn’t have any future urinary concerns feeding a canned food is a must.
Or break free from kibble altogether and try air dried or freeze dried.
Does RC British Shorthair specific food have less carbs than this reviewed version?
I’ve noticed that the formulas for every dog breed are virtually the same just in different places a guy on dog food advisor found this out also and linked some stuff a few times, I found it quiet funny how similar a lot of the food he linked actually was and that it was too bad that no one ever took it to heart and just kind of ignored his comments, is ignorance really that blissful? I guess so.
The only difference is they either add more fat or protein, more fibre or less and even out some other stuff.
There’s some stuff left out or added as I have now read but still a lot of ambiguous ingredients and it’s what a lot of people including myself refer to as overpriced trash.
I’ve also noticed that they change the kibble size – making the kibbles bigger for breeds which are known for “wolfing” their food, forcing them to slow down with the bigger kibble.
But that may be the only difference.
Thanks for you reply Veronika. Would you say that following petfoodreviews top rated cat foods would be the best way to go, for all types of cat breeds?
I’m on holidays still so sorry for the late reply I was also trying to use less Internet as I’m going to run out soon so in essence I turned it off altogether and decided to just read the langoliers again for like the 4th time haha, even got quiet a scare because of it when my mum walked into my room suddenly, it has quiet the effect on me.
I think the best cat food list is a good start, if you can afford RC you have quiet a wide choice of foods.
Earthborn is really good, it has high protein and fat and I’ve read of a lot of happy comments about it.
I would imagine taste of the wild would be good also as it is for dogs.
Blackhawk ain’t bad for cats, they are changing formulas due to their recent buy out by Nestle though.
Ivory Coat is really good.
I loved Artemis Osopure range for dogs so I’d imagine the cat version to be just as good.
Good luck but yeah stay away from RC in the future and be sure your cat gets a lot of fluids, they are very prone to crystals due to the choice of kibble diets for them, if you can find a good canned feed that also, or else you may be seeing RC again with the need for a vet prescribed diet for urinary problems, that simply puts a bandaid fix on the problem but doesn’t actually solve it and it’s nutritionally incomplete long term.
See that’s what confuses me, cats need to get a lot of fluids, but then none of these good brands here, have a wet food, other than RC. RC kind of tells you, feed them kibble plus one sachet of wet food pet day. They make it easy. But maybe I’m just over thinking it 🙂
Hi Milos, wet food is definitely essential for cats particularly. Wellness, ZiwiPeak, and Canidae cans are well worth looking into, as is K9 natural freeze dried food or barf diets.
Personally I feed my cat dry, wet, and raw. A variety.
You could perhaps do what some people do and feed kibble morning and wet at night or the other way around, I’m pretty sure that would work also.
Artemis has wet food for cats I noticed that when I needed to look it up for someone, Ziwipeak and feline natural also but Ziwi gives more for its price, K9 natural so far from what I’ve seen was more water then food even though they state it as a small amount of added water.
I know that Petbarn wise wellness has cat tins.
I was sure that natures gift would have cat tins based on their website they do not, for a supermarket brand their tinned foods are quiet good.
Not sure we have it but I think I once saw it to be honest Sheba I think it was, was quiet good for a supermarket Mars brand.
Applaws has wet food but with their cat killing history I wouldn’t trust them lol even if it hasn’t happened since, it leaves a mark.
There’s probably more but I can’t seem to remember them right now.
Thanks a lot for your help guys, the kittens come next week so we will see how I go I guess, but this is a good indication of which food I should be feeding them 🙂 thanks again for your help.
It’s better to start with good right from the start then to try and do so later on, apparently it’s very hard to change to better foods same with dogs after they’ve tasted sugar laden foods or foods sprayed with msg oils like the vet diets are.
One of the chihuahuas we got one time came with normal chihuahua RC food and even that was dripping with oil so I think they do it to all their foods, either way dripping or not the current female chihuahua we have sniffs the food a friend gave me and walks away without a care in the world haha.
Certainly doesn’t work on every fussy dog or cat.
And yeah no problem 😀
I was thinking of having few different brands, and mixing it up, so to try and get them used to couple of different brands. At the moment we have RC kitten food and RC wet kitten sachets. But we will probably feed them raw meats as instructed by the breeder. I was thinking of maybe buying another type of wet food recommended by you guys and then mixing it up with RC food.
Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I give Rusty a lot of different foods and he’s better then he ever was, Angel on the other hand she’s very very fussy she will wait all day and apparently from what I’ve witnessed being on holidays several days for better food.
She doesn’t always want what even I give her though and so we always have kibble on a coffee table for when she’s hungry the one thing I’ve noticed she will always eat when hungry.
Angel is new so essentially I can’t say that different food changes her as she’s always on a rotating diet as like I said above she tends to get bored easy and also knows she will get better food if she just waits.
Eventually I’d get them off of RC altogether so much wasted potential with its price point, it’s clear they don’t have your pets in mind but rather your deep pocket.
I have Persians and feed them Royal canin Persian and Royal canin kitten. Does it hurt adult cats to have the kitten biscuits. I also feed them raw meat and sometimes can food. I wish they would fatten up but they are so fussy and sometimes don’t touch the meat. Is there anything I can give to help them? Thanks
I have a 8 months old male Persian, he has some skin issues, dandruff like flakes came off and he has been really itchy. Took him to see a good Vet, the Vet suggested to change his dry and wet food to either Hill Science or Royal Canin. I changed to RC base on what the Vet instructed, and changed from offered raw beef mince to cooked chicken. Vet said dont offer any beef. After reading the information and comments here, I would love to change it to a better quality food or should I stick with RC for a bit longer….
Hi Cheryl, is the RC working? It could be a grain allergy, or less common an intolerance of a certain meat
Well I was really quite disappointed after reading the ingredient list in my bag of Royal Canin Indoors that I had bought for my ragdoll. The first ingredient was maize, second dehydrated poultry protein , rice then vegetable protein! I had thought this was top of the line quality but not so. I have been doing some more research and will be sourcing a better quality product. U.S has a good product which has the first 3 ingredients listed as meat based,mostly grain free called Innova EVO which looks promising but I’m not sure if it’s available in Australia. I was also quite surprised at Science diet too which was even worse and actually read like a horror story 🙁
Hi Michelle, Innova isn’t available in Australia. It used to be a really good food but seems to have had a few issues since being bought up by Procter & Gamble. We have a few decent American and Canadian foods imported such as Canidae, Earthborn, Holistic Select, Artemis, and others. We used to have Orijen which is one of the best foods available in the US but it was affected by radiation regulations on import so is no longer available. We also have a number of very good Australian foods too 🙂
I would not buy anything Procter & Gamble are associated with and can understand the issues, as they are not a company who have compassion for animals.
What are the Australian Foods which would be worthy of being rated a mention.
I have just learnt the horrible truth about Perscription Pet Foods sold by Vets (two of my cats are suffering on them at the moment) and I am looking for a food I can be confident in.
Hi Heidi, I’m sorry to hear your cats are suffering.
If you’re looking for decent Aussie brands then have a look at Ivory Coat, Stay Loyal, Meals for Mutts, Black Hawk, and also K9 Natural and Ziwipeak if you’re willing to include New Zealand in that 😉
I have a British Shorthair… 7yrs old
I feed her RC British shorthair specific of a morning and around 200g of fresh meat of an evening. there is always plenty of fresh water on hand.
there seems to be a push away from dry food now… is this just a fad? or something to really consider?
I really want to do the right thing by our cat
Hi Sue, there are pros and cons whether you feed wet, dry, or raw. Many wet foods are for supplemental feeding only as don’t contain essential vitamins and minerals, yet people fail to realise that. Raw diets take a lot of research and can do more harm than good. A decent quality dry food can make an excellent base diet, and supplementing it with fresh meats is a great way to vary and balance out a diet.
Hi. just wanted to thank you firstly for taking the time to give such informative reviews. Secondly, could you please give your review of RC Hairball as my cat is a Turkish Van X who suffers from amazing mounting abilities leaving furnests everywhere she has been. This is the only food that we have tried that does seem to eliminate her coughed up furballs. is there anything else on par with price that is better for her? She is 14yr old, suffers some arthritis and shares her dry food with a healthy ailment free 4 yr old DSH male cat. TIA
Hi Shona, the RC Hairball control isn’t too dissimilar to this formula. It’s worth noting the use of vegetable proteins which aren’t as easily digestible for a cat, as well as corn, corn gluten, corn flour, wheat, rice… these provide little nutrition for carnivorous cats. That said there are certainly far worse foods, and if your 14 year old cat is in good health and this helps with her hairball then it might be worth continuing. Unfortunately other manufacturers can’t account for specific conditions. Something worth considering is supplemental feeding of a decent wet food, an occasional chicken neck, and so forth?
I recently purchased a badg of Boxer breed Royal Canin for my two year old Boxer. Starting with a cup at night and in the morning. By the next afternoon my pup was violently ill. She was shakinv and experiencing shallow breathing. I took her to the vet who ran some blood tests advising that she had a high fever/temp and was severely dehydrated. We took her home with a supply of hydrating salts and I spent all night administering orally via syringe. My pup would not eat or drink voluntarily over the course of the nest three days. She has just now begun to recover, eating Advance canned soft dog food. I have since read many similar reviews with other owners stating their dogs experienced similar side-effects, some even passing away from the trauma. As a self confessed dog lover and concerned owner, I highly advise against Royal Canin dog foods. Believing I was giving my dog premium dog food lead to her being very unwell for days on end. Please be very cautious with the food you choose to feed your pooch.
I have just purchased Royal Canin puppy food for my 15 week old and she has become very unwell too. I am convinced its the food but am happy your puppy is ok but also it has confirmed my thoughts by your story. thanks
Hi Sandra,
Did your dog suffer the same symptoms as Natasha’s dog?
Hi, could you please give me your opinion on the RC Hypoallergenic Dry cat food?
Hi Vanessa, the hypoallergenic food is formulated as a temporary diet to see if allergy symptoms go away. The problem is the food cuts down on important ingredients, such as meat content. Cats need meat to maintain health and muscle mass, so feeding that food over a long period of time would likely do more harm than good. If your cat has allergies or intolerances then ideally you need to find out what it is. The common culprits are cheap grains such as wheat, corn, and sorghum – trying a grain free food eliminates all of those, so that could be your starting point. Try one of the fish-based Canidae Grain Free foods, as they often work wonders with allergy symptoms.
Could you advise on the Maine coon & the Ragdoll food?
Hi Jeanette, see my comment for the kitten food as this applies to the specialised formulas too. It’s good they consider hereditary health issues in specific breeds (such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in Maine Coons) and adjust their formulas accordingly, but that doesn’t mean to say your cat will have issues on any other brand of food. Royal Canin use a lot of cheaper ingredients/fillers such as white rice, corn/corn gluten, and sometimes wheat – these provide nothing nutritionally for felines. All these ingredients do is increase the profit margin for the company. As I said in the review, it’s a mixed bag. It’s a far better food than the Iams, Purinas, and supermarket brands.
Can you please give me more info on RC kitten biscuits please.
Hi Fiona, we only review dry foods – sorry.
Kitten biscuits are the dry food
Ah sorry, my mistake.
RC Kitten is pretty much on par to the adult formulas. Again we find rice, maize (corn), and maize gluten (corn gluten) which aren’t the best ingredients. Thankfully there’s no sign of wheat in the kitten food. On the upside we have a decent amount of poultry protein which ensures your cat is getting protein in a digestable source. Vegetable protein isolate should be easier to digest that other vegetable proteins, and it kind of makes me think of Herbal Life or Isagenix “health shakes” you often hear people dieting on.
It’s a better food than most, and definitely one of the better major brands.