Royal Canin Mini Digestive Care Dry Dog Food1–10 kg adult weight · adult

Some small dogs simply never produce a firm stool. Nothing's wrong on the tests, they're bright and well, but there's a soft one most mornings and an occasional bad week — and if you're picking it up off a small garden or a courtyard, it matters.

The approach here is absorption rather than restriction. Highly digestible L.I.P. proteins are selected for how completely they're taken up, with barley, beet pulp and prebiotics balancing the fibre so there's less bulk arriving at the far end. Fat runs at 22% and protein at 30%, making it dense enough that a smaller portion covers her needs — which is itself easier on a sensitive gut. Most owners see firmer, less frequent, less smelly stools inside a fortnight.

• Digestive Health
• Complete Nutrition

Ingredients

Dehydrated poultry protein, rice, animal fats, hydrolysed animal proteins, vegetable protein isolate (L.I.P. — protein selected for its very high digestibility), wheat flour, wheat, barley, maize gluten, beet pulp, yeasts and parts thereof, fish oil, soya oil, vegetable fibres, minerals, fructo-oligo-saccharides, marigold extract (source of lutein). Additives (per kg) — Nutritional additives: Vitamin A 30,500 IU · Vitamin D3 800 IU · E1 (Iron) 37 mg · E2 (Iodine) 3.7 mg · E4 (Copper) 11 mg · E5 (Manganese) 48 mg · E6 (Zinc) 135 mg · E8 (Selenium) 0.08 mg. Technological additives: Clinoptilolite of sedimentary origin 10 g. Preservatives. Antioxidants.

Looking after it

Store in a cool, dry place, sealed. Use within six weeks of opening. Change her over across a full week, adding a little more of the new food each day — switching a sensitive dog abruptly causes exactly the problem you're solving. Nothing else in the bowl: no scraps, no chews, no dental sticks, for at least a fortnight, or you won't know what worked. Loose stools with blood, weight loss or vomiting are a vet visit, not a food change.