Royal Canin Maxi vs Pedigree Complete

At 1,436 kcal a day, a 30 kg neutered dog goes through about 133 kg of Royal Canin Maxi Adult a year, or about 148 kg of Pedigree Adult Complete. At the prices read on 2 November 2026, that's about £567 against about £360.

The working is mine. The Merck Veterinary Manual's formula gives the calories: 70 x 30^0.75 x 1.6. Multiply by 365, then divide by what zooplus.co.uk states for each food, 3,941 kcal/kg for Royal Canin and 3,530 kcal/kg for Pedigree. The prices are £63.99 for the 15 kg bag (£4.27/kg) and £29.09 for the 12 kg bag (£2.42/kg), both from zooplus.co.uk and before any voucher. Merck says one animal can need as much as 30% more or less than another of the same weight, so treat both totals as a starting point. Put your own dog's weight into the pet cost calculator.

I haven't fed either food to a dog. This comes from labels, store pages and named sources, and the opinions are mine.

Smaller portions don't close the gap

Royal Canin's extra calories do real work. The same dog eats about 364 g a day of it, against about 407 g of Pedigree, so a 15 kg bag lasts about 41 days and a 12 kg bag about 30.

It's still dearer per calorie. Royal Canin comes to £1.08 per 1,000 kcal and Pedigree to £0.69 per 1,000 kcal, at those same prices. If you want the reasoning behind that measure, how price per 1,000 kcal works goes through it.

What the extra money buys on the label

Protein is 26 % in Royal Canin and 20 % in Pedigree. Fat is 17 % against 9 %. Those are the figures on the store pages, and nobody here has tested them.

The ingredient lists read very differently. Royal Canin's opens with dried poultry protein, wheat flour and maize. Pedigree's opens with "cereals", then "meat and animal derivatives (including 4% beef)". So the beef in the name is 4% of the recipe. I find category words like "derivatives" irritating, because they tell you less than a named ingredient would.

Cereals sit high on both lists, so neither is the low-grain option.

Who each one fits

Royal Canin Maxi is stated for adult dogs of 26 to 44 kg, from 15 months. A 15 kg dog sits outside that. Pedigree's table runs from 10 kg to 50 kg, which is why I'd call it the more general food.

The feeding tables also disagree. For a 30 kg dog, Royal Canin's normal-activity line says 361 g a day, about 1,423 kcal at its stated energy. Pedigree's says 345 to 380 g, about 1,218 to 1,341 kcal. Follow the packs and the Pedigree dog gets fewer calories. That's why my yearly sums hold the calories level for both foods. Keep an eye on the dog's weight either way, and ask your vet if it moves.

Two things on the store pages

Bag size doesn't behave as you'd expect. On Royal Canin's page, checked 2 November 2026, the 4 kg bag was slightly lower per kilo than the 15 kg, and the 10 kg was the dearest of the three. Check all the sizes. Pedigree has the 12 kg bag and a twin pack of it, so there's no small bag to try first.

Don't lean on the review scores. Zooplus shows 4.8 out of 5 from 198 reviews for Royal Canin and 4.9 from 25 for Pedigree, but its own AI summary of the Pedigree reviews says many came from people who got the food as a free trial. I'd expect free kibble to get kind reviews.

For other bags in the same weight range, see dry food for large dogs, ranked by value.