Is 'Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten Dry Food' genuinely formulated for Maine Coons?

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Although the pet food manufacturers do a lot of good work, they tend to be criticised by critical thinkers because understandably their primary objective is to maximise financial profit. It is totally normal in a capitalist society, obviously. 

One way for a pet food manufacturer to maximise profit is to extend their product lines. The more products they produce, the greater their sales and profit follows.

Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten Dry Food
Image: Royal Canin and Pets at Home.

That's why you see foods that are stated to be made for specific cat breeds. Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten Dry Food is one of them.

On my reading of the information accompanying the product on the Pets at Home website (which I presume has been written by a Royal Canin employee) this product has been made for kittens generally.

This is bound to be the case as Maine Coon kittens are like any other kitten in terms of their digestion. There is nothing in science which indicates that Maine Coons have weak or sensitive stomachs. They are typical cats.

The Maine Coon is only untypical for 2 reasons (1) their size and (2) two well-documented inherited diseases: hip dysplasia (loose hip joint) and patella luxation (out of place kneecap). Nothing about digestion. I have searched Google Scholar to confirm that fact by the way.

Maine Coon Kittens. Photo copyright Helmi Flick.
Maine Coon Kittens. Photo copyright Helmi Flick.

So, the reasonable conclusion is that Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten Dry Food is made for kittens generally and not Maine Coon kitten specifically and this borne out by their bumf.

They say:

"Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten Dry Food is specially formulated with all the nutritional needs of your kitten in mind. Although your kitten's digestive system is developing, it still remains immature. That's why your kitten requires a diet of high-quality protein to support and maintain healthy digestion."

This is general kitten information. They say that it contains a protein which is 'highly digestible' called Low Indigestible Protein (LIP) and prebiotics (“a non-digestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, and thus improves host health” - National Library of Medicine study: Prebiotics: Definition, Types, Sources, Mechanisms, and Clinical Applications).

I presume that 'low indigestible protein' means a protein which is highly digestible! 'Low indigestible protein' is a double negative making it harder to understand. Why did they label this ingredient that way? Answer: to make it sound more complicated and technical to baffle customers.

This dry food product is geared to kittens. That's great. But through marketing the company decided to sell cat food targeted at kittens generally but labelled as made for Maine Coon kittens specifically.

That's my personal conclusion. Cynical? Or realistic? Note: the food is for kittens up to 15-months-of-age.

Comments welcome from Royal Canin. Anything they say which makes sense will be added to the article.

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