Frequently Asked Questions
We offer a Palatability Guarantee on our products: If your pet doesn’t enjoy the food, and the pack remains at least 50% full, you can return that pack (and any other unopen packs of the same product) to your place of purchase for a refund of the pack price (less applicable delivery, handling, or processing charges).
When returning the pack, you will need to provide details of your dog’s experience, along with your original proof of purchase. Our products come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Our Palatability Guarantee applies in addition to, and does not replace, those consumer guarantees. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. Where applicable, you are also entitled to have goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.
Our quality and food safety systems are state-of-the-art and we continually invest in new technology to ensure this remains the case. All our food is made to the strictest quality requirements to ensure absolute safety.
We manufacture every pet food we sell, in plants that we own; our plants are ISO 9001:2008 certified for Quality Management and ISO 22000 certified for Food Safety.
Because cats and dogs deserve the best nutrition to remain in the best of health, ROYAL CANIN® is committed to:
- Selecting the suppliers of raw materials in accordance with very strict specifications. This rigorous selection process doesn’t end with our first purchase.
- Testing the quality of every ingredients before they are accepted for use in ROYAL CANIN® foods - we monitor every load delivered to our plants to verify the safety and quality of the ingredients we use to make pet food.
- Only using meat from animals which are declared fit and healthy for human consumption
- Quality control from the moment the raw materials enter the factory tight through to the packaging stage, thanks to systematic measures and analyses at all key stages. Rigorous testing is done on every batch of finished product in order to validate safety, nutrient composition, and quality, before our products are shipped to our customers
- Providing complete traceability and identification of all ingredients
It is important to remember that pets, particularly cats, may be occasionally sensitive to subtle variations in diets. For a smoother, more gradual transition from one bag to another, remember to buy your new bag a week in advance to enable mixing of the current bag and the new bag together. If your pet used to like our food and refuses to eat it unexpectedly despite a gradual change between bags, please contact one of our nutritional advisors by phone or email to advise you further. If your pet is unexpectedly refusing their normal Royal Canin diet, please contact our Nutritional Helpline via Contact Us
DAYS 1-2 25% new diet with 75% of the previous diet
DAYS 3-4 50% new diet with 50% of the previous diet
DAYS 5-6 75% new diet with 25% of the previous diet DAY 7
100% new diet You may need to extend these transition stages depending on how well your individual pet responds.
For any further questions, please contact our Nutritional Helpline via Contact Us and they will be happy to tailor the guide specifically for your pet.
Ingredients for ROYAL CANIN® products are selected based on multiple different factors, including the suppliers’ compliance with our quality and food safety requirements, consistent availability and nutrients available.
Grains are an excellent source of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fibre, and fatty acids that are essential for the health of dogs and cats. Not only do they support the health of our pets helping to provide complete and balanced nutrition, but they can also be very sustainable. Grains used in pet foods are an excellent source of energy, helping to provide complete and balance nutrition. The only poorly digestible portion of a grain is usually the hull, which is why Royal Canin removes the hull and grinds the grain very finely before it’s added to any of our formula to make sure it becomes digestible.
At ROYAL CANIN®, We never use artificial colourings in our foods to keep to a conformed colour. There will be a natural variation in the raw ingredients which will be reflected in the colour of the final product. This is comparable to different colour variations you see when you purchase meat, fruits and vegetables.
“Meat” claims in pet food can be confusing.
It is common for suppliers of cat and dog food to market their products by claiming the amount of “meat” or “fresh meat”, particularly placing them as the first ingredient. According to current feed legislation, each ingredient / ingredient group in a pet food must be listed on the package based on weight before cooking in descending order. This means that “fresh meat” that naturally contains large amounts of water (approximately 75%) receives a high position on the ingredient list. This may give the impression that “meat” is the primary source of the nutritional content of the pet food. When reading an ingredient list, we should take into account that “fresh meat” contains 70-80% water. During the preparation of a “processed animal protein” as “dehydrated poultry protein” or “chicken meal”, most of this water is removed. For example, this means that 1 kilogram of fresh poultry will provide approximately 250 grams of nutrients, compared to 1 kilogram of dehydrated poultry protein which provides more than 900 grams of nutrients. A list of ingredients containing raw materials with very different water content becomes difficult to understand. Overall, you should consider moisture content whenever reading a pet food label making diet comparisons. We also recommend looking at the ‘guaranteed nutrient analysis (protein, fat, carbohydrate…) and at the nutrient digestibility when comparing diets.
Please contact our nutritional advisors team if you would like to discuss nutrition any further.
Meat and animal derivatives is a labelling category that describes animal based ingredients used in pet foods (not including dairy which has it's own category). Animal derivatives are by-products of the human food industry from species typically used in the human food chain such as beef, chicken, pork and fish.
By-products can be simply defined as materials that we have an excess of in society such as offal, which is a highly nutritious ingredient enjoyed around the world, but that's less popular to eat in the UK.
In all ROYAL CANIN® products we only use high quality by-products - listed as animal derivatives in our ingredients list. Our high-quality by-products are not only safe and nutritious, they are also more sustainable as they do not compete with human food production.
Meat and animal derivatives is a labelling category that describes animal based ingredients used in pet foods (not including dairy which has it's own category). Animal derivatives are by-products of the human food industry from species typically used in the human food chain such as beef, chicken, pork and fish.
By-products can be simply defined as materials that we have an excess of in society such as offal, which is a highly nutritious ingredient enjoyed around the world, but that's less popular to eat in the UK.
In all ROYAL CANIN® products we only use high quality by-products - listed as animal derivatives in our ingredients list. Our high-quality by-products are not only safe and nutritious, they are also more sustainable as they do not compete with human food production.
Although measuring cups can be used as a guide, they offer significant daily variation between meals (on average 20% more or less food per serving*). Additionally 80% of owners overfeed when using a measuring cup* therefore we do not recommend using them.
Due to this level of inaccuracy, our recommendation is to weigh out the daily allowance of food using digital scales, this ensures your pet is receiving the correct amount of food each day. These amounts may change due to life stage, activity level or whether the animal has been neutered, therefore to maintain their ideal body condition throughout life we advise to weigh your pet regularly and adjust feeding amounts where necessary.
*AJ German et al. Imprecision when using measuring cups to weigh out extruded dry kibbled food. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition (2011); 3(11):368-373.
** kibblequeen.com/banthecup/
For dry diets, palatability of the kibble remains at its best for one month after the bag is opened, however will be fine for up to two months so long as the bag is stored properly, in a cool, dry, airtight container.
Once opened, wet food should be refrigerated and consumed within two days. If left out at room temperature, it should be discarded after two hours.
Once opened they should remain in the original bag, in the airtight container and resealed between feedings.
Most small bags have a re-sealable zipper, however, if the bag does not have this feature, it’s recommended to close the original bag as best as possible and keep the product in an airtight container. Once the diet has been left out at room temperature for your pet, the uneaten kibble should be discarded after 24 hours maximum.
Our wet diets once opened and given to the pet, should be discarded after a maximum of 2 hours.
Canned diets, once opened, need to be covered with a tin cover, and refrigerated in an air-tight container, pouches should be closed and placed into an airtight container, stored upright in the refrigerator. Once opened, wet diets should be used within ideally 48 hours, or 72 hours maximum.
When refeeding your pet from an opened tin/pouch, please check before use to ensure that there are no obvious changes to the appearance of the diet.
If your pet doesn’t like cold food, try warming it to room temperature before feeding. (Please note: if you use a microwave put the product in an appropriate microwave-safe container and always check the temperature before feeding, it should be heated for no more than 10 seconds).
Please remember to wash your pet’s dish regularly, as remaining food particles can attract bacteria and insects.
12. Subject to the above terms and conditions*, your retailer will then be able to refund the full price of the product. Your retailer will liaise with their ROYAL CANIN® Business Manager so that we can refund them.
ROYAL CANIN® want to improve pets' lives, placing cats and dogs' needs first to contribute to their optimal health. There is more: our nutritional approach based on nutrients enables us to consider the environmental and social impact of every single recipe we develop, whilst providing pets with nutrition of the highest quality, benefits, and safety. And our sustainability journey doesn't end there: we are working relentlessly towards improving our impact on pets, planet, and people, by making our activities more sustainable and socially responsible.
Packaging plays an important role in delivering our products to consumers. It protects finished products as they move on to customers and consumers. Packaging helps preserve the freshness of our products, conveys important legal and nutritional information, differentiates our brands on shelves, and provides consumers with recommended feeding guidelines. We are currently rethinking our approach to packaging because we believe there is no such thing as a sustainable product in unsustainable packaging.
We’re proud of our products, but deeply concerned about the impact of packaging waste on land and in the ocean. This is unacceptable and we are committed to addressing this, even if it means redesigning much of our packaging or our business models.
We have signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation commitment. We aim to reduce our virgin plastic use by 25%, to integrate an average 30% recycled content in our plastic packaging1 and to have 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging.
1Target dependent on advancement of chemical recycling at pace and scale & alignment of food safety regulations. For more information on ROYAL CANIN® sustainability, please visit: Sustainability
To access a ROYAL CANIN® website in a different country, click on the words "United Kingdom" located at the bottom right of every page of our website. This will bring you to a world map where you can chose your country of interest.
Click on the country of your choice and you will be automatically directed to the associated ROYAL CANIN® website.
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