Does anyone feed Flint River Ranch?

FRR is a human-grade food with "natural ingredients that are slowly oven-baked under carefully controlled conditions, resulting in a food that is easily digested, and has a high degree of assimilation of important vitamins and minerals." (copied from the site where I purchase it www.flintriver.com)

I started using this food for my dog, Rosco, about 3 years ago when he tested allergic to corn. He is on a lamb, millet, and rice formula that honestly changed his quality of life so much!

I want my cats to eat this food too. Right now, I am trying to get the kittens off the Iams they were being fed at the shelter. The food I bought from Flint River was a cat/kitten formula http://www.flintriver.com/catalog.as...Cat=Cat%20Food and I would like to get all of the cats eating it. However, Blue is VERY finicky and he tends to love junky food and really not eat well with the better foods. I have been supplementing his with junky wet food because he has had so many issues lately (giardia, thyroid issues, infected tooth) and lost weight that I am more interested in him EATING - something, anything - than continuing to lose weight so he can eat a really healthy food.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Are there any great brands of WET food out there that are not junk that I could maybe mix with his junk food and then slowly mix with the dry food to get him eating better?

Thanks!

I dunno about their dog food, maybe it's better, but their cat food seems to contain basically the same kinds of ingredients as the pet foods you don't want to feed them. :/

Check out the ingredients list of the cat and kitten food:
Chicken Meal, Ground Yellow Corn, Lamb Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbic Acid), Ground Whole Wheat, Inactive Dried Brewer's Yeast, Fish Meal, Corn Germ Meal, Salt, Dried Beet Pulp, Dehydrated Cheese, Lecithin, D-Activated Animal Sterol (Source of Vitamin D3), Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Riboflavin, Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Inositol, DL-Methionine, Manganese, Dehydrated Kelp, Zinc Sulphate, Copper Sulphate, Cobalt Sulphate, Ferrous Sulphate, Taurine, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Dried Whey.

I also have a hard time trusting the nutritional knowhow of any company that tries to make this claim:
"Corn is more readily digested in felines than in canines and supplies important diet benefits to cats and kittens. Corn is a nutritionally superior grain compared with others used in pet foods because it contains a balance of nutrients not found in other grains."

It sounds like they're basically trying to come up with a convincing argument as to why they've packed their cat food with a nutritionally useless, cheap, high-sugar filler. Everything I've ever read about cat nutrition suggests it is not more readily digested in felines than in canines (I would think the opposite is true), and is in fact the source of allergies and food intolerances for a lot of cats. It's used in pet food (and human food) so much because it's very cheap, so it's a cheap way to boost nutritional values on the label without having to add more of the expensive, higher-quality ingredients like real meat. Brewer's yeast is another one of those cheap filler ingredients (and another common allergen) used to boost protein values without having to add more meat.

Some foods you may want to look into are Wellness, Merrick, and Blue Buffalo Wilderness. They'll probably provide more of what you're looking for.

Raw diets are another option. My cats were originally on the above-mentioned grain-free wet foods, and then I eventually put them on a premade raw (Primal) to try to resolve digestive issues in one (which were only improved slightly by the grain-free wet) and the results were amazing. If you want to talk dramatic quality of life changes, just wow. Any of my initial skepticism over "how much better could raw really be than grain-free canned?" went away after seeing the results for myself.

Not a food I recommend ... mostly cause it is hard to find and IMHO = to the "premium" grocery brands like Iams

What stores can you shop?

Corn germ meal is not corn nor is corn gluten they are fractions of ,.... one is a form of fiber( not one I like) and one is a protein ( very good at providing UTI balance in a dry )....


Corn is 30-50% digestible in BOTH cats and dogs... though I have read a study claiming 99% digestibility in a dog ( not for a second do I believe that one )

Corn germ would be near 0

Corn gluten is 66-76% which actually makes it more than most fish , nearly equal to some wheat and potato

Brewers yeast is NOT a cheap additive ... but a HIGHLY allergenic vitamin and mineral supplement.. In an inactive form it is slightly less likely to cause a reaction in a prone animal

Originally Posted by sharky

Brewers yeast is NOT a cheap additive ...

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Can you elaborate on this? Why do you not consider it a cheap additive?

Wow - I am shocked as the FRR dog food is top notch!

Originally Posted by saitenyo

Can you elaborate on this? Why do you not consider it a cheap additive?

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Brewer's yeast is an excellent source of vitamin B, which is good for coat, skin, and eyes. You may be thinking of the fact that many cats are allergic to brewer's yeast, which is why it would not be common in foods, but as a supplement.

Originally Posted by BlueRexBear

Wow - I am shocked as the FRR dog food is top notch!

Click to expand...

Actually, from looking at the ingredients, it's about mid-grade. . .of course, if your dog has sensitivities and is doing well on that food, there's no reason to change. But there are better foods out there, and most of them cost less. FRR is very expensive for the quality.

What do you all recommend for Cats. I am not sure if I will change Rosco's food or not...but I may attempt it after I get the cats settled.

The only store close by is an Earth Fare or a Petsmart...but they are both a 1 hour drive from me. That is how I came up on FRR - I liked that it could be shipped to my home without tax or shipping charges. It was considered a good food on the cocker forums I frequented when I was struggling with Rosco's allergies and the delivery was a big perk and helped me in making the decision to do FRR over others. You are right though...expensive is not even the word for it!

Is there a Tractor Supply Co in the area? They have a pretty good selection. Some independent feed stores have the good foods, too.

There are online pet food sites you can order any brand from if it really is hard to get decent foods locally. www.petfooddirect is one I've used.

The canned foods I've fed in the past are Wellness, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, and Merrick. The first two are available at Petsmart I believe. The latter I can only find at Petco or small local stores.

These days I feed them mostly Primal, which is a premade raw. It's usually small local stores that carry that. They have a store locator on their website.

Originally Posted by saitenyo

The canned foods I've fed in the past are Wellness, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, and Merrick. The first two are available at Petsmart I believe. The latter I can only find at Petco or small local stores.

These days I feed them mostly Primal, which is a premade raw. It's usually small local stores that carry that. They have a store locator on their website.

Click to expand...

Wellness is IMHO getting to high$$ for the quality in both dry and canned... Merrick I now avoid at all costs

I like Primal and so did the cats but it is very hard to get here( distribution issues I have addressed them, used to consult for a local pet store)...Last I checked the store s that had it ( about 8 $ a lb)...


Petsmart

Authority- decent for the $$
Nutro - ever changing dry some of the wet still is very solid
Blue ( the Wilderness is their no grain and since the reformulation my cats enjoy it ) ... the other IMHO have too much grain for the price
Wellness( the amount varies by location some do not have but a 2.5 ft inlin of it )
By nature - wet is $$ but good ... dry IMHO is a grainy for the $$
Innova/Evo - very sporadic locations have it .. Evo is the no grain and the wet is very good