Royal Canin

Robin132

My dog has recently been put on this, I was just wondering if anyone can recommend somewhere online to buy it or where the cheapest place for it is? (Its just normal food for a large dog, not any of the special royal canin foods)

Nody

Why has your dog been put on it? Did your vet recommend it? Did he give you a reason for why it has to be RC?

Reason I ask is because RC is greatly overpriced (for the content in it) and vets like to recommend it (along with one or two other brands) because they sell it themselves. As were to get it, amazon or zooplus.ie would be your best bet for the cheapest price but RC is never cheap.

ZiabR

Overrated food at a crazy price. Thats my opinion. What breed of dog do you have and why was he/she put on it?

Robin132

Nody wrote: »

Why has your dog been put on it? Did your vet recommend it? Did he give you a reason for why it has to be RC?

Reason I ask is because RC is greatly overpriced (for the content in it) and vets like to recommend it (along with one or two other brands) because they sell it themselves. As were to get it, amazon or zooplus.ie would be your best bet for the cheapest price but RC is never cheap.

Vet recommended it (along with another brand I cant remember) because my dog has lost nearly 4kg's in a month and a half (I have a boxer) and he said it was because the food she was on (madra, which I know isn't the best but it was what she was reared on so we were told to keep her on that) wasn't digestible enough anymore as she is getting old.

He just put her on the normal adult one, I assume it doesn't really make a difference if I buy one which is specifically for a boxer rather than the normal one?

Nody

Well if you need to change food but don't want to pay to much go with Mühle NaturNah; you can find several users on this board who've changed to it and are very happy with the result. You can also look at Lukullus, Almo Nature Adult, Nutrivet, Taste of the wild, Applaws or Orijen which are all better and cheaper/as expensive as RC.

RC is nothing special in terms of what's in it so if all what you need is a better food then any of the above will beat RC by a mile and a half in what's put into it. Keep also in mind when changing to do it gradually over a week (i.e. old food 80%, new food 20% and then increase new food and decrease old food over the week) to avoid soft stools.

Btw I fully support your vet on changing from Madra; that's useless fillers you're feeding him.

Ingredients:
Cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin, meat and animal derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, minerals and vitamins

Meat should ALWAYS be primary ingredient in any dog food (certain breeds excluded) and having it as third is very very poor stamp of quality but all the above are meat as primary (and usually secondary or third as well).

Robin132

Nody wrote: »

Well if you need to change food but don't want to pay to much go with us Mühle NaturNah; you can find several users on this board who've changed to it and are very happy with the result. You can also look at Lukullus, Almo Nature Adult, Nutrivet, Taste of the wild, Applaws or Orijen which are all better and cheaper/as expensive as RC.

RC is nothing special in terms of what's in it so if all what you need is a better food then any of the above will beat RC by a mile and a half in what's put into it. Keep also in mind when changing to do it gradually over a week (i.e. old food 80%, new food 20% and then increase new food and decrease old food over the week) to avoid soft stools.

Btw I fully support your vet on changing from Madra; that's useless fillers you're feeding him.
Meat should ALWAYS be primary ingredient in any dog food (certain breeds excluded) and having it as third is very very poor stamp of quality but all the above are meat as primary (and usually secondar or third as well).

Thanks for the information, much appreciaited, I will look into the other brands aswell.

cocker5

Robin132 wrote: »

Thanks for the information, much appreciaited, I will look into the other brands aswell.

http://www.zooplus.ie/esearch.htm#q=taste%20of%20the%20wild

I buy my cockers taste of the wild on zooplus..

just remember a vet will alwasy only recommend a brand of food he / she sells... not ssaying its bad quality but may not bee the best food for the price if you know what i mean.

ZiabR

I feed Mühle NaturNah aswell, its great stuff and not overly expensive.

DBB

Hi OP,
If your dog is getting on a bit, 8+ years of age, then opt for a food that is specifically aimed at older dogs. It's not just a sales pitch, food for older dogs should contain high-quality protein, added Vitamin E, essential fatty acids. actually, just feeding oily fish to your dog a few days a week would really help, but diet plays a critical role in helping stave off canine dementia, much more so than it does for humans.

MagicFairyDust

I got an interesting email from Pet food Express to You this moth about Royal Canin food to quote from it:

Royal Canin (owned by Mars) have announced they are changing their protein source for pet foods to chicken feathers, flavoured with palatizers (whatever that is ). This sounds like a real Frankenstein experience for your pet.

Rips

Robin132 wrote: »

Vet recommended it (along with another brand I cant remember) because my dog has lost nearly 4kg's in a month and a half (I have a boxer) and he said it was because the food she was on (madra, which I know isn't the best but it was what she was reared on so we were told to keep her on that) wasn't digestible enough anymore as she is getting old.

It gets very tiring on here reading the same hate spiel about brands like Royal Canin.

Your dog was on a terribly cheap, poor quality diet, and by the sounds of it, your vet has recommended a 'lifestage' diet like the ones available from Royal Canin or Hills.

Ie; A good-quality non-prescription diet suitable for your dogs needs at this time.

Yes, these are both brands most vets are familiar with.

A bit like if you went to your local garage with knackered tyres and you were recommended Bridgestone or Michelin, or whatever big name, reputable brands exist. You can absolutely get brands of comparable quality cheaper if you do your research.

The fact of the matter is, neither RC of Hills are producing bad food... neither are their commercially available ranges 'overpriced' when you compare the daily requirements to other foods of comparable quality.

Some of the things expressed in this thread are opinions disguised as facts ... for instance, there are plenty of foodstuffs which are not meat, that are engineered to be of a higher nutritional quality and digestibility, which also happen to be cheaper, which is the reason they are included in your dogs food. If you want to feed the same digestible energy in prime meat cuts, expect to pay for it.

What irritates me greatly about this post is that your vet might be recommending a typical commercial senior dog food for a reason, and some of the examples here are foods which will vary drastically.

For example; most RC senior dog diets are low protein, high fibre ... which may be beneficial for some afflictions of the older dog.... given that your dog has been on a fairly terrible quality food, at 8 years old, I'd expect that yes, there might be problems.

Is the same dog going to be able to tolerate high protein, low fibre diets like those offered by the brands mentioned above?

Is this the only thing being recommended by your vet?

TooManyDogs

People aren't saying Royal Canin isn't a good food because they enjoy brand bashing, they're saying it's not a good food because it isn't a good food and particularly for the price you pay the quality of the ingredients should be light years away from what they are.

The amount of protein in a dog's diet isn't the problem, it's the source of the protein is the problem. Excess protein is excreted in the urine. So large quantities of low quality, inappropriate proteins will cause problems but high quantities of high quality protein is fine.

Vets get very little education in animal nutrition so are not the best placed people to be giving advice, no more than you would go to your GP for dietary advice.

There is no reason why an 8 year old boxer shouldn't be able to thrive on a good quality food with a higher protein content, I have a 15, 13 and 11 year old dogs all eating a raw meat diet and they are in perfect health. People are just telling the OP that for less money they can get a far higher quality food.

Bullseye1

OP here is a site which reviews/rates dog food.
http://www.whichdogfood.co.uk

Robin132

Rips wrote: »

Is this the only thing being recommended by your vet?

Thank you for the reply, I do appreciate all the advice we can get.

Yup this is all the vet has recommended for her in relation to her weight loss.

andreac

Which version of RC? Was it one of the veterinary special RC ones?

Sorry just realised its just the normal large breed one.

If you want the dog to gain weight then id recommend a higher quality food with more meat content as some have suggested. You can also add pasta, meat etc to bulk it up.
But i def wouldnt recommend the RC that he suggested for your dog. Its obviously only because they sell it, but there are far more superior foods out there for cheaper so id try go with that.