Figuratively speaking, all of Royal Canin’s® products are full of baloney… as is their accompanying marketing hype. See more about hype here.
The first time I read the ingredients on a can of Royal Canin’s® cat food my jaw dropped in disbelief.
If the primary recommended and species-appropriate diet for a cat’s physiology, i.e. that of an obligate carnivore, is simply muscle meat, organs, and finely ground bone from an herbivore/ungulate animal, plus some dietary supplements, then how, can Royal Canin®, with any conscious at all… how can Royal Canin® justify what they put in wet canned cat food? (Never mind the overall, predominant lack of trust we should have in a company which produces dry pet food.)
So the best diet for a cat is as said above, i.e. to use the general term, “meat.”
There is very, very little “meat” in Royal Canin’s® products, and what is there is mostly meat by-products. Just read the can’s label.
PROTEIN SOURCE:
NOT ONLY THAT, but the “meat/protein” they do use is of the poorest quality in terms of protein choice from a list of possible herbivore/ungulate animal proteins. Out of 19 possible animal choices, chicken comes in at 18, or the next to last recommended protein source.
Pork by-products, which is Royal Canin’s® other (and only other) protein source other than chicken (except for the filler substitute-protein stuff like egg product), isn’t even listed in the 19 possible protein choices because it such a poor source of protein.
THEY USE MEAT BY-PRODUCTS INSTEAD OF MEAT (because by-products cost less).
Back to their primary use of by-products. Exactly what are by-products and how are they used?
I reject all by-products because it’s a category ripe for manipulation by unscrupulous manufacturers.
According to AAFCO, (the organization which develops descriptive definitions for the entire pet food industry) meat by-products are “non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. [By-products] Includes, but [is] not limited to lungs, spleen, kidneys, brains, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs.” – and I presume – feathers.
( I wonder… how do pet food manufacturers separate the fecal matter contaminants from the ‘by-products?’ How much chicken or pig poop is in ‘by-products’?) (Maybe the entire category should be called “Bye Bye Products” because that’s what they will do to your cats.
Some of the by-products described above are necessary and nutritionally useful, but how are we pet food consumers to know which by-products are in Royal Canin’s® products, and how are we to know the source of those by-products?
So the primary ingredients in many of Royal Canin’s® products is not “meat/protein”, but by-products. It’s a little like running some water over a chicken’s intestines and calling it cat food. And RC is so proud of this stuff that they market it as contributing to a cat’s long term health.
THEN THERE IS THE QUESTIONABLE PERCENTAGE OF ACTUAL “MEAT/PROTEIN’ IN ROYAL CANIN’S® PRODUCTS.
If the entire diet of an obligate carnivore is composed of 100% muscle meat, organs, and finely ground bone from an herbivore/ungulate animal, plus some dietary supplements, then how is that the Royal Canin® product line’s overall protein content is somewhere around 10%, as expressed in their own guaranteed analysis data descriptions? One product in the list below has only 5.8% protein – [as fed basis].
How could it possibly benefit a cat’s long term health if they are only getting 10% (or less) of their necessary dietary requirement?
THEN CONSIDER THE MYRIAD OF ‘OTHER QUESTIONABLE INGREDIENTS as listed above this review summary.
How can ANY cat food manufacturer use ingredients which are of questionable value in their cat food, much less using ingredients which are widely known to be detrimental to a cat’s health?
FINALLY THERE’S THE MARKETING METHOD/HYPE
Royal Canin® has, over many years, developed a marketing strategy of aligning themselves with veterinarians all over the world. For the most part, you can’t step into a Vet’s office anywhere and not see Royal Canin’s® products on the vet’s office shelves.
So Vets obviously support and recommend the use of Royal Canin®. What’s behind that relationship? Some Vets may be innocently unaware of the ingredients used in RC’s products. Others may be quite aware, but continue to sell RC – probably because of the profit margin.
Is a healthy profit margin more important than a healthy cat?
BACK TO WHAT’S IN THE CAN
When you closely examine the product ingredients below don’t they all seem about the same to you?
After reading the ingredients list just ask yourself…
- “Isn’t Royal Canin® pretty close to being just flavored water?”
- “Aren’t some ingredients in Royal Canin® downright detrimental to a cat’s long-term health?”
- “Is Royal Canin® just another deceitful cat food manufacturer?”
- “How could my Vet endorse and sell such a product?”
AND REMEMBER… These products are COOKED. Think about that!
For further insight into this outrageous cat food manufacturing/marketing scam, go to this page.”
– Doug Hines, publisher, CatNewsHeadlines.com
PS. I would hate to have Royal Canin’s® water bill. “Water sufficient for processing” seems to be the most abundant ingredient in their products. That’s what you are getting for your money folks – flavored water.
to open a product’s detailed ingredients list
Manufacturer’s Product Page
