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Has anybody tried royal canin dry food?

post #1 of 11
3/12/11 at 5:22pm
Thread Starter 
I have a 4 year old maine coone rescue kitty that I've raised since 4 weeks old and I was interested to know if anybody else has an opinion on royal canin's dry food. I've been feeding her RC since she got off of the kitten's milk and no food I've tried to replace it with has worked out to say the least. She's started on the small kitten kibble and then switched to the maine coone variety which has kibble that is just as large as my 50lb beagle mixe's wellness kibble...very out of the norm for dry cat food varieties that are out there but it slows down her eating so that she chews and doesn't swallow it whole as she's done with other foods (i.e. royal canine indoor dry and blue buffalo dry).

She gets 1/2 cup per day and usually there are 15 or so kibbles in her bowl by the next day's feeding so she conserves her food very well as the chewing of the larger kibble really slows her down. About a year ago I tried switching her to 2 different dry foods: Royal canin indoor dry and blue buffalo indoor dry. Both had terrible results. I opted for the RC indoor dry quite simply because I could buy a bulk quantity (15lbs I think...) as opposed to constantly shelling out $26 for a 7lb bag of the specialty RC maine coone variety. Bad choice! My kitty was fed the same amount, 1/2 cup, and she would eat her entire days food in 1 feeding and then whine the entire day and night for more. She finally worked her way up to an entire cup per day at which point I promptly returned the remainder to petsmart for an exchange to her normal maine coone food.

As far as the blue buffalo brand; my kitty turned into a holy terror on that crap. Her behavior became extremely erratic and abnormal to where she was running back and forth through the house with wild eyes and clawing at everything...very unusual for my calm kitty. She also binge ate the food in the same way she did with the normal RC indoor dry as they both have very small kibble so she doesn't even chew it.

I know there are a couple of undesirables in RC's Maine coone mix such as corn gluten and other grains but I simply cannot find anything else on the market that my kitty responds to like the rc mc brand. Her stools are solid and regular as well as her eating habits...the only time she binge eats now is when I give her some chunk light tuna and she licks the entire plate clean!

Has anybody else had experience with rc's brand of food or suggestions for alternatives with large kibble?
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post #2 of 11
3/12/11 at 5:54pm
Overeating can cause loose stools, so it may not have been the ingredient but fact that she was inhaling it. Blue also makes a variety of formulas, and I have had good luck with grainfree Wilderness and have decided to stick with it. Buttercup had loose stools on their Chicken and Rice one.

To resolve eating too fast, there is a relatively cheap and simple solution:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=226592

Alternatively, an auto-feeder could dispense 1/4 cup of kibble twice a day, and cats learn the precise schedule and won't bother you or expect food outside of the machine's times. The auto-feeder is nice if you have to be away or can't be very consistent with feeding times: http://www.amazon.com/Petmate-LeBist...9862754&sr=1-5

I'd also recommend including a wet meal in there if at all possible.
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post #3 of 11
3/12/11 at 6:57pm
If shopping petsmart keep an eye out for the bright orange clearence stickers-sometimes in aisle sometimes on endcap

I have scored many bags of royal canin big bags for 50% off cause short dated but I will wait them out when they hit 25% as in my area no one else really buys some of the premium brands.

Have done the same with damaged pouch 12 packs(one missing 1/2 off) some are alot better then others and some tend to group it in an out of way spot(on way to restroom or in dog grooming....
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post #4 of 11
3/12/11 at 9:20pm
I have 3 on the prescription cat food - Royal Canin Urinary SO - mostly canned, and as a midnight treat - a small serving of the Royal Canin Urinary SO dry.

I'd rather they be on something else, but, unwilling to take a chance that bladder crystals will prove troublesome again.

I prefer canned food over dry food and, as usual, recommend a website for those interested in food recommendations: http://www.catinfo.org/

It's a lot of information to digest - but, I've found a great resource.
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post #5 of 11
3/13/11 at 8:50am
I fed my cats RC for years, and would still do so if I could only afford it. I had to switch to a less expensive brand, Purina Naturals, as it was the closest in ingredients/makeup.

My bengals especially benefitted from the RC, and I fed several types of RC mixed together. If you have any questions, PM me and I'll be happy to answer them.
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post #6 of 11
3/15/11 at 6:21pm
I am actually trying to find Pixie a better brand of food and I want to find one that atleast the first three ingrediants are meat as the first ones are the ingrediants that the food has the most of. I picked up a bag of science diet which is what my vet had my RB kitty Tavia on and the very first ingrediant is wheat gluton so never again for that brand. I called purina today for an ingrediant list on her purina one and while the first ingrediant is chicken the second is wheat gluton so they have one that is made of chicken, chicken meal, and I think eggs, and rice can't remember the name and they are sending me a coupon for it. I don't know anything about royal canin but I am researching different brands now.
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post #7 of 11
3/16/11 at 11:02pm
I have used it with my 2 kids. It was the kibble rabbit version prescription. However, it was out of our price range for what our kids eat so we found a more practical alternative for our budget. But they did enjoy it.
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post #8 of 11
3/17/11 at 6:07am
Mine have been on it for a while now and their fine with it. They have Royal Canin Oral, along with another brand of kibble, but i've just ordered some Royal Canin for their fur and skin to mix in
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post #9 of 11
3/17/11 at 7:31pm
This is a food IMHO that generally is more $$$ than its worth but it is a decent premium with better ingrediants and quality of ingrediants at time than even the "super premium" foods often thought to be better
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post #10 of 11
3/20/11 at 11:53am
I feed my under 1 year olds with Royal Canin Calm and Kitten dry food and once a day with natural food, fresh meat, or fish, same stuff I would eat myself.

Here Royal Canin is around 10 euros / 1 kg, they seem not to eat a lot of it, as they are having natural food too they eat perhaps 1 kg in bit over week, that is two cats, meat here is 2.30 euros / 1 kg, so compared to that it is expensive, but it does calm them down and seem to have benefits visible in litter box.

I have also some samples of Neutered male dry food of same brand, but I have not yet decided to use it much, need to get that 4kg of kitten food spent first mixed with calm food. They are ferals so they need all the calming they need at these first weeks.

Here they probably don't sell any better dry food, Royal Canin is sold at Vet offices here as best dry food too, but I think real natural dish is best, it just don't walk to bowl by itself so I have to use dry food too.

Purina here is market brand and professionals here seem to think that no food sold at market is to be used for pets, however I have learned during my life that people often think things that might not be quite so when all point of views are examined.

Sorry for these european units, I'm bit in a hurry now so couldn't convert them, but you should get them converted via google, just type unit then 'to' and what unit you wish to get, like 1 kg to lbs and it should give the answer.
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post #11 of 11
3/20/11 at 1:16pm
I have RC here, the selective protein preference, it works for us and very well. It keeps my ragdolls especially the males at a good weight and makes there coats super silky and soft.

I also use Nutro natural choice indoor care active adult(that's a mouthful lol)

BOth of these foods offer high omega values over 4% which is what my cats must have.

It is pricey which is a major downfall, a 6lb bag runs me 33$(+13%tx) but again i have tried many, many other foods and they just don't work as well for my group so i stick with this combination.
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