diff --git a/framework/components/dockercompose/.changeset/v0.1.15.md b/framework/components/dockercompose/.changeset/v0.1.15.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a04d1628e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/framework/components/dockercompose/.changeset/v0.1.15.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- Even more robust check if error is retryable for `Red Panda`'s schema registration
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/framework/components/dockercompose/chip_ingress_set/protos.go b/framework/components/dockercompose/chip_ingress_set/protos.go
index eaa8c657d..f0083fec3 100644
--- a/framework/components/dockercompose/chip_ingress_set/protos.go
+++ b/framework/components/dockercompose/chip_ingress_set/protos.go
@@ -557,6 +557,10 @@ func checkSchemaExists(registryURL, subject string) (int, bool) {
 	maxAttempts := uint(10)
 	var resp *http.Response
 	existErr := retry.Do(func() error {
+		if resp != nil && resp.Body != nil {
+			resp.Body.Close()
+		}
+
 		var err error
 		resp, err = http.Get(url)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -630,6 +634,11 @@ func registerSingleProto(
 
 	var resp *http.Response
 	registerErr := retry.Do(func() error {
+		// Close previous response before next attempt
+		if resp != nil && resp.Body != nil {
+			resp.Body.Close()
+		}
+
 		var respErr error
 		resp, respErr = client.Do(&http.Request{
 			Method: "POST",
@@ -644,11 +653,17 @@ func registerSingleProto(
 		}
 
 		if resp.StatusCode >= 300 {
-			data, dataErr := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
-			if dataErr != nil {
-				return errors.Wrap(dataErr, "failed to read response body")
+			body, bodyErr := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
+			resp.Body.Close()
+			if bodyErr != nil {
+				return errors.Wrap(bodyErr, "failed to read response body")
+			}
+
+			if resp.StatusCode >= 400 && resp.StatusCode < 500 {
+				return retry.Unrecoverable(fmt.Errorf("schema registry error (%d): %s", resp.StatusCode, string(body)))
 			}
-			return fmt.Errorf("schema registry error (%d): %s", resp.StatusCode, data)
+
+			return fmt.Errorf("schema registry error (%d): %s", resp.StatusCode, string(body))
 		}
 
 		return nil
@@ -657,7 +672,13 @@ func registerSingleProto(
 	}), retry.RetryIf(func(err error) bool {
 		// we don't want to retry all errors, because some of them are are expected (e.g. missing dependencies)
 		// and will be handled by higher-level code
-		return isRetryableError(err)
+		shouldRetry := isRetryableError(err)
+
+		if !shouldRetry {
+			framework.L.Warn().Msgf("Determined to not retry error: %T (error: %s)", err, err.Error())
+		}
+
+		return shouldRetry
 	}))
 	if registerErr != nil {
 		return 0, errors.Wrapf(registerErr, "failed to register schema for subject %s", subject)
@@ -699,16 +720,6 @@ func stripFolderPrefix(path string, prefixes []string) string {
 	return path
 }
 
-// transformSchemaContent removes folder prefixes from import statements in protobuf source
-func transformSchemaContent(content string, prefixes []string) string {
-	modified := content
-	for _, prefix := range prefixes {
-		// Transform import statements like "workflows/v1/" to "v1/"
-		modified = strings.ReplaceAll(modified, `"`+prefix, `"`)
-	}
-	return modified
-}
-
 // buildDependencyGraph builds a dependency graph from protobuf files
 func buildDependencyGraph(protoMap map[string]string) (map[string][]string, error) {
 	dependencies := make(map[string][]string)
@@ -804,15 +815,32 @@ func isRetryableError(err error) bool {
 		return false
 	}
 
-	retryableErrorMessages := []string{
-		"connection reset by peer",
-		"EOF",
-	}
-
-	for _, msg := range retryableErrorMessages {
-		if strings.Contains(err.Error(), msg) {
+	var urlErr *url.Error
+	if errors.As(err, &urlErr) {
+		// Retry on timeouts
+		var ne net.Error
+		if errors.As(urlErr, &ne) && ne.Timeout() {
 			return true
 		}
+		// Fall through to check the cause too
+		err = urlErr.Err
 	}
-	return false
+
+	// network-layer errors worth retrying (dial/read/write problems)
+	var opErr *net.OpError
+	if errors.As(err, &opErr) {
+		return true
+	}
+
+	if errors.Is(err, io.EOF) || errors.Is(err, io.ErrUnexpectedEOF) {
+		return true
+	}
+
+	msg := err.Error()
+	return strings.Contains(msg, "connection reset by peer") ||
+		strings.Contains(msg, "broken pipe") ||
+		strings.Contains(msg, "connection refused") ||
+		strings.Contains(msg, "http2: stream error") ||
+		strings.Contains(msg, "EOF") ||
+		strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(msg), "timeout")
 }