• Animal Digest - Plus 1 point = No animal Digest
• Corn - Plus 1 point = no corn
• Wheat - Plus 1 point = no wheat
• Soy - Plus 1 point = no soy
• Gluten - Plus 1 point = no gluten
• The Goodies - Minus 1 point = Natural Flavors, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Fermentation Product.
• By-Products - Plus 1 point = No by-products
• Animal Fat - Plus 1 point = No animal fat
• Pet Food Recalls - Plus 1 point = No Recalls Flint River Pet Food
• Class Action - Plus 1 point = No Class Action Flint River Pet Food

Total Score = 9/10

We have a winner!! Flint River has managed to produce a dog food without the use of Corn, Wheat, and Soy. Corn, Wheat, and Soy are known killers of cats and dogs. Flint River Ranch has no history of pet food recalls. Flint River Ranch Pet Foods have no Class Actions filed against the company.

I like the use of real meat in Flint River Ranch Fish n Chips.

I do not like the use of:

Natural Flavor. I always like the way pet food companies hide the use of manure in the ingredients. Natural flavor is made from the manure of the animal the pet food company wants the pet food to taste like. If natural flavor were an actual part of the ingredients then natural flavor would not have to be listed as a separate ingredient. From FDA reports.

Natural Flavors as defined by the FDA With respect to flavors, pet foods often contain "digests," which are materials treated with heat, enzymes and/or acids to form concentrated natural flavors. Only a small amount of a "chicken digest" is needed to produce a "Chicken Flavored Cat Food," even though no actual chicken is added to the food. Stocks or broths are also occasionally added. Whey is often used to add a milk flavor. Often labels will bear a claim of "no artificial flavors." Actually, artificial flavors are rarely used in pet foods. The major exception to that would be artificial smoke or bacon flavors, which are added to some treats. http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petlabel.htm

Animal digest. AAFCO doesn't care that manure is included in the pet food as long as the temperature at the time of cooking is brought to a certain degree.

Now there are those people out there who simply refuse to believe a pet food company would use manure in their pet's foods. Let me ask you to think on this issue for just a minute and then see what you decide. Let's take a person, for instance, When a person begins the "digestion" process food is placed in the mouth for chewing. Digestion continues as the food passes to the stomach and is broken down to pass into the intestines for further digestion. Digestion is complete once the person has had a bowl movement and fully evacuated the food from the human body. Why would obtaining animal digest be any different from human digest?

Brewer's rice and brewer's dried yeast are by-products of beer production. There you go, your little pet gets what is left over after a beer run, the stuff not fit for human consumption.

Fermentation Products - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Sugars are the common substrate of fermentation, and typical examples of fermentation products are ethanol, lactic acid, and hydrogen. However, more exotic compounds can be produced by fermentation, such as butyric acid and acetone. Yeast carries out fermentation in the production of ethanol in beers, wines and other alcoholic drinks, along with the production of large quantities of carbon dioxide. Grain fermentation solubles are an inexpensive by-product of human food and beverage production which add little or no nutritional value to pet foods. Alcohols can cause the same damage to an animal's liver and brain as they cause in humans. But the effects can be deadly on animals since they are much smaller than us. The smaller the animal, the more deadly the effects can be. Even a small amount of alcohol may cause vomiting and damage the liver and brain.

--Susan Peters