Royal Canin Relax Care

Royal Canin Relax Care

Royal Canin Relax Care is an everyday dry and wet food for dogs that find change hard — moving house, a trip in the car, long stretches alone, or a new baby or pet arriving. Royal Canin's own framing is that it helps a dog adapt to situations that make it feel anxious, using a naturally active protein molecule that research has associated with a calming effect in dogs. That molecule is alpha-casozepine, a peptide derived from milk protein.

Read this part before you buy. Relax Care is food, not medication. It is not a sedative, it does not work within minutes, and it does not replace training, gradual desensitisation or a veterinary behaviour plan. For a dog with real separation distress, a noise phobia or a bite history, a diet is at best one small piece of a plan your vet or a qualified behaviourist puts together — start there rather than here. What a food like this can reasonably do is sit underneath that work as the daily diet.

Choose by adult body weight, not by temperament. Mini Relax Care comes in 3kg for dogs up to 10kg, Medium Relax Care in 3kg and 10kg for the 11-25kg band, and Maxi Relax Care in 3kg and 9kg for dogs of 26-44kg. Each is a complete adult food, so it replaces the current diet rather than being added alongside it. The Relax Care loaf, in 85g x 12 or 85g x 48 pouches, keeps you in the same line when you want wet food in the bowl.

Change over across a week or so, mixing a little more of the new food in each day. An abrupt diet change is itself a stressor and tends to upset the gut of exactly the dog you were trying to settle — and if the unsettled behaviour started suddenly, rule out pain and illness with your vet before you assume it is anxiety.

Shop related

• Royal Canin — the full range, dog and cat.
• Royal Canin dog food — every dog formula in one place.
• Royal Canin dry dog food — the complete dry range by size and breed.
• Royal Canin wet dog food — pouches and cans, loaf and gravy.
• Royal Canin Mini — under 10kg adult weight, small kibble for a small jaw.
• Royal Canin Medium — 11-25kg adult weight, the band most crossbreeds land in.
• Royal Canin Maxi — 26-44kg adult weight, with joint support built in.