Royan Canin (I can't believe I'm saying this)

[papillon806]

Ok, I had this posted on a few other forums, but I'm adding it here:

Ok, so [the other day] there was a royal canin seminar to the animal nutrition grad students (us who are concentrating on companion animal nutrition) and they actually had some good points that I am debating on (we also got a bunch of free bags of dog food, lol) and I wanted some of your opinions.
Anyways, I brought up the menadione thing and they said that most of their formulas don't have it anymore (which I read the labels and confirmed), and they are working on removing it from the ones that do. I also brought up the corn gluten meal thing, and they made a good point about how the studies against it were feeding dogs only corn gluten meal as a protein source, which is why the dogs had lean mass deterioration (which is true regarding those) and the royal canin foods have the animal protein meals too, so the corn gluten meal was added for extra amino acids. They showed us their research (done at their facility in France) which was actually pretty convincing, so I was a little stumped at more arguements to come up with. I ended up getting the free bag of the "Special 30 mini" or whatever it's called for dogs w/ sensitivities, and the ingredients are:
Chicken meal, chicken, brewers rice, brown rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), corn gluten meal, dried eggs, beet pulp (sugar removed), natural chicken flavor, brewers yeast, canola oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, salmon oil, potassium chloride, monosodium phosphate, dried sweet potatoes, choline chloride, salmon meal, dicalcium phosphate, flax seed, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, dried blueberries, dehydrated alfalfa meal, dried spinach, marigold extract, folic acid supplement, zinc oxide, iron sulfate, manganese proteinate, biotin, sage, copper proteinate, calcium pantothenate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, vitamin A supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, sodium selenite, rosemary extract, ascorbic acid, niacin supplement, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin B12 supplement, calcium iodate, vitamin D3 supplement.

Gauranteed analysis:
Crude Protein Minimum 30.0%
Crude Fat Minimum 22.0%
Crude Fiber Maximum 3.0%
Moisture Maximum 10.0%
Omega 6* Minimum 4.5%
Omega 3* Minimum 0.76%

I know it has brewer's rice, which is not the best quality rice, but it does have brown rice. I also found out that Royal Canin is approved in Europe's OSI (I think that's how it's abbreviated) for testing every single batch of feed, which is uncommon. Anybody have any thoughts or experiences with this food?

 

[Zoom]

I used to feed Medium 25 and had decent success with it. Of course, I had been feeding Iams before that, soit could have been just the jump in quality. But Sawyer always had softer stools on the RC than he does now that he's on Innova.

The ingredient list on the Special mini looks better than the one for the Medium 25; I was a little leery about feeding something I couldn't pronounce or recognize some of the ingredients.

 

[CLee]

it's not the best quality food out there... but it's better than a lot of them.

my 4 yr old maltese-mix is currently eating the special 30 mini... he's really picky... and he eats this well enough... the other foods he's been on we've had to REALLY entice him to eat by adding stuff like low-quality wet foods or treats..

but on the special 30... he'll eat enough of it with just bits of liver mixed in... (but not all the time.. pickkkkkky and annoying.) it's still not the type of eating habit I desire from him... but I can tell he's doing a lot better on this than the previous brands so I give them kudos.

overall, he's healthy on this food.

i'm on the lookout on a good quality food that he can REALLY enjoy eating... without any additions of treats or what not... but i'm comfortable sticking to royal canin for now

 

[papillon806]

Thanks Everyone who has fed RC has seemed to have a good experience with it, so I think I'm going to try it and see how it goes. However, I am still interested in more opinions on it so keep 'em coming!

 

[Pomp]

Didn't Royal Canin just have to recall some of their products?

 

[papillon806]

It was a recall on an excess of vitamin D3 in one of their RX canned formulas, which according to the newscast is not something they test for (or which any company would test) for in the routine sampling, etc. But no dogs died on it and it was a pretty short lived thing (as opposed to the Diamond issue).

 

[Mordy]

You already know my opinion, so I'm not going to repeat here what I posted on the other forum.

 

[Gustav]

I feed Gus Royal Canin Maxi Adult and Perle the medium adult. They are both possitvley blooming with health! Although here in France the ranges of dog foods are alot more limited than over in the US. I understand that it may not be the "Best" dog food produced, but it is the best that I can buy over here without the expense and hassle of shipping it over from the States.

I recently persuaded (after about a year of nagging) my parents to switch from Hills to Royal Canin, and their dog has really come on in leaps and bounds! He has much more energy, his teeth are better, and he poops a whole lot less!!!!!