Royal Canin Cat Food Review

Company Overview

Of the legacy pet food companies I have reviewed, I have found that Royal Canin stands out in regards to their corporate culture, quality standards and research. 

Despite changing ownership numerous times, Royal Canin has maintained a level of independence in making their pet foods. They have their own manufacturing facilities, feeding trial facilities, and nutritionists. They operate nearly as a stand-alone company within Mars Petcare who focuses heavily on nutrition research and keeps close oversight on safety and quality. In fact, they have not had a recall for over 13 years, which is nearly unheard of for a brand their size.

Formulas are well tested in scientific feeding trials for digestibility, palatability, long-term health, and urine pH, all essential aspects of any cat food. However, Royal Canin does have lesser quality ingredients compared to many all-natural brands. Their canned formulas rely on plant proteins and pork by-products. Their dry formulas have a fairly low meat content, but from my research, I have found them to be the best legacy brand dry foods currently available. 

As far as legacy pet food brands go, Royal Canin is one of the best. Their track record of safety speaks for itself. Like other brands who carry a veterinary line, Royal Canin has a nutrition consulting service. But unlike their competition, they will speak to average pet owners and veterinarians alike. In my research and in my work as a veterinary assistant, I have used this hotline several times. They are fast, professional, and accessible to the average cat owner. In our Royal Canin cat foods review, we found out that Royal Canin really has done the work to stand out among other research-focused brands.

Wet Food

In trying out Royal Canin’s Digest Sensitive wet food for my tuxedo cat, Pfieffer, I found the “thin slices in gravy” texture to be appealing to her. From the smell, I could definitely tell this was cat food. I prefer my cat food to smell like opening a can of human food (think chicken or tuna). However, I try to remember I’m not the one eating the food and I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. When I made 100% natural homemade canned cat food that included fresh liver and gizzards, it didn’t smell great either. Pfieffer seemed to gobble the liquid portion of this food right up and readily ate some of the solid slices as well. 

Royal Canin’s Wet Food Ingredients

Main Ingredients: The wet cat food formulas are made of a combination of pork by-products, pork liver, chicken, and chicken liver. In this case, pork by-products include organ meat such as lungs, spleen, brain, kidney, etc.

Ideally, I would like to see each pork ingredient listed separately, but it is much more expensive for Royal Canin to purchase this way. It may be impossible for Royal Canin to buy various pork organ meats in the quantity they need. Oftentimes, purchasing an ingredient as “by-products” is the best a large company can do. That being said, the by-products in this food are listed as “pork” and not “meat,” so it indicates that there is significant care going into the ingredient sourcing.

Many formulas include wheat gluten as an ingredient. This plant protein is a cheap way to increase the protein content of the food, but the amino acid composition is much less useful to cats than a meat protein. It would be preferable to see the protein in this canned food come entirely from meat.

Texture: The Royal Canin canned cat formulas are thickened with a variety of ingredients. Formulas use gelatin, pork plasma, and cellulose to enhance the texture of the food. Gelatin and pork plasma are great protein-rich texture enhancers, while cellulose provides insoluble fiber.

Despite canned food not requiring a carbohydrate source, Royal Canin has chosen to add modified corn starch and sometimes wheat or rice flour to their wet cat foods. The corn starch is likely to help enhance the texture and palatability of the food, but starches are not nutritionally necessary for cats.

Oils/Fats: Vegetable oil is used in the formulas, which is not ideal. This oil is pro-inflammatory and rich in omega-6s. On the bright side, the formulas also include fish oil or salmon in the ingredients to help balance the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
Minerals: The mineral supplement used in the foods is primarily a cheap mineral salt supplement. However, the zinc is chelated, meaning that it is bound to an amino acid and is more readily absorbed by the body.

Dry Matter Nutritional Information on Select Royal Canin Wet Cat Foods

Best Royal Canin Wet Food – Feline Care Nutrition Intense Beauty Chunks in Gravy Pouch

Among Royal Canin wet cat foods, this food simply stands out. It has a very low phosphorus content of 0.64% on a dry matter basis. It also has one of the lowest carbohydrate contents among Royal Canin wet foods, at 16% on a dry matter basis. 

This food also has guaranteed levels of omega-6s and omega-3s at a 5.5:1 ratio. These levels of omegas are included in the food to promote a healthy coat, but they also provide many other benefits for cats. 

Given the low phosphorus content and high omega-3 content, this food would be excellent for both healthy adult cats and cats with kidney disease.

Dry Food

Royal Canin Dry Food Ingredients:

Main Ingredients: The first ingredient in Royal Canin formulas is chicken meal. This is great to see because chicken meal has had the moisture removed, meaning chicken is truly the first ingredient on the list.

After the chicken meal, a number of carbohydrate sources are listed. These include corn, brewers rice and wheat. Considering there are a number of carbohydrate sources, it is likely that overall there are more grains in this food than meat. In addition to grains as a carbohydrate source, corn gluten meal and wheat gluten are also in the ingredients. Glutens are the proteins from these plants. They have a poor amino acid composition compared to meat and are less nutritionally useful to cats. Gluten is a cheap way to increase the protein content of cat food.

Fiber: For fiber, the ingredients include pea fiber, rice hulls, and/or dried beet pulp. These soluble fiber rich ingredients can help with digestion and make cats feel full between meals.

Fats: The fat sources in Royal Canin dry cat foods include chicken fat, vegetable oil, and fish oil. Chicken fat and fish oil are great sources, but vegetable oil is rich in omega-6 and is proinflammatory.

Prebiotics: Prebiotics are also included in the formulas, including fructooligosaccharides and often psyllium seed husk too. These are great ingredients to promote a healthy gut.

Minerals: Strangely, some formulas include mineral mixes that are chelates, while others do not. Chelated minerals are the gold standard in supplements, as they are more readily absorbed by the body.

Dry Matter Nutritional Information on Select Royal Canin Dry Cat Foods

Best Dry Royal Canin Food – Feline Care Nutrition Dental Care

Royal Canin excels at making scientifically studied specialized diets, both prescription and over the counter. Out of all of their over the counter dry diets for adult cats, we believe that the Dental Care food is the best overall dry food by Royal Canin.

What makes this food unique is the scientifically studied kibble shape in order to help promote oral health. Tooth decay is a major health concern for cats, especially those that eat dry food, so this food would be the most beneficial Royal Canin dry cat food for the typical adult cat. 

However, we did not choose this food for the dental benefits alone. This food is lean (322 kcal/cup), which will help prevent obesity. Unfortunately, the low calorie content is in part achieved by a high carbohydrate content of 37% on a dry matter basis. The main source of protein in this food is chicken meal, which is an excellent choice. Additionally, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is 7:1, which is a very healthy level. The omega-3s come from fish oil, indicating that DHA and EPA are also present in this food. 

A final differentiation of this food as compared to other Royal Canin dry food offerings is that the mineral mix offers chelated minerals such as zinc proteinate and manganese proteinate. These forms of minerals are the most digestible for cats, and they are ideally what we like to see included in cat food.