Dehydrated chicken (chicken meal) is simply fresh chicken meat with water and fat removed. Properly processed, it is an excellent source of high quality, highly digestible protein for your pet.    Fresh chicken vs chicken meal: Understanding labels on pet food    

Chicken meals go through a process of cooking, grinding, separating, and drying. By removing the moisture in this way enables us to create a much more concentrated and digestible source of protein.  In comparison to fresh meat, which contains, on average, around 75% water and only 10-30% protein, 1 kilogram fresh poultry will provide approximately 250 grams of nutrients compared to 1 kilogram of dehydrated poultry protein which is known as chicken meal, with much lower water content, which provides a massive 940 grams of nutrients.  

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” will naturally receive a high position on the ingredients list. This might give the impression that “fresh meat” is the primary source of the nutritional content of the pet food. However, this is not likely to be the case as fresh meat contains 70% of water.  The nutritional profile is provided by the entire diet, and not just the first ingredient listed on the pet food label. 

At Royal Canin, every single ingredient listed on our packaging is included for a specific purpose, determined by the high-quality nutrients they provide for cats and dogs. If you are ever uncertain about ingredients in your pet food or would like to know more about how a cat or dog’s diets should be tailored to address their unique needs, speak to your vet or a qualified pet nutritionist.    Chicken: Culprit for skin problems and allergies?  Out of every 1000 dogs presented to clinics, 20% of them are due to skin diseases (200 dogs). Out of this 200, 20% of them are due to adverse reaction to food-40 dogs. Out of this 40, only 15% of them are allergic to chicken - approximately 6 dogs. Therefore, 6/1000 dogs presented to vet clinics are allergic to chicken, that is only 0.6%. And this figure is much lower in cats.