Letter from Dr. Debra Mack, DVM, CVA:

"Dear Jim,

I quite often get asked the question by clients as well as my distributors as to why there is not a separate puppy formula in your product line. To be quite honest, it was a question in the back of my mind as well when I became a distributor.

I have raised several litters of puppies on most of the well known premium brands of puppy food and this summer raised my first Flint River litter. I purposefully did not supplement with other puppy food or use supplements other than yogurt and vitamin C, to determine for myself if the regular formula was adequate for weaning and growing puppies. The results - the food moistens quite readily into a soft gruel for starting the puppies on solid food. Other products take much longer soaking to completely reduce the food to a gruel consistency. There were no problems with soft stools as long as the puppies did not overeat.

I have now raised three of the puppies to the age of six months with nicely controlled growth rates, beautiful coat and condition, and to this point, excellent overall health and soundness. I cannot claim this for the "premium puppy foods" I have used in the past.

I also have a client who has recently weaned a litter of Rottweilers on Flint River and is very pleased with her results, as well as numerous other client raising healthy, sound structured puppies on regular formula Flint River Dog Food.

My question now would be, "Would it ever be necessary to have a separate puppy formula if the quality of the food was high enough to provide high quality, highly digestible ingredients which would render the necessary nutrients needed for proper (controlled) growth and development?" It appears at this time from my observations, that the answer is "No", and if so, would not be the first pet food fallacy I have discovered.

I have been breeding and showing English Setters for 15 years and practicing veterinary medicine for nearly that long, and felt you would appreciate hearing of my personal results with Flint River, as well as those of some of my clients. I feel very fortunate to have such an excellent line of pet foods available for myself and my clients, as I firmly believe it is the first and most important part of a preventive or restorative health program.

Sincerely,
Debra J. Mack, DVM"

** Reprinted with permission

Original letter on file at Flint River Ranch Corporate Office

Letter from Dr. Junia Childs, DVM

"Dear Jim:

I'm so glad that I decided to become a Flint River Ranch Distributor. Not only is FRR an excellent food, I also feel we are uniquely positioned to take maximum advantage of the marketing opportunity here in the Southeast. The market is virtually untouched. I'm truly excited by the prospect of bringing such a great product to the pet food buying public.

As you know, I have been retailing FRR in my clinic for several months now. I have had only positive results. The food is so palatable, I have yet to have any pet refuse to eat it. The clients are seeing noticeable improvement in their pets' skin, haircoat and general level of vitality. I have a three year-old Westie that suffers from atrophy and allergies in general. Her owner commented just today that she has never seen Maddie's hair look so good! I agree! Another patient was in the clinic almost every other month with chronic yeast or Staph. When I saw him last week, his ears were clean and healthy. The owner reports no changes other than feeding Flint River! I also have a couple of FUS cats now on FRR instead of Feline C/D. So far so good!

Only a couple of years ago I was one of the top retailers of Hills Science Diet in the metro Atlanta area. I felt comfortable feeding and recommending these products to my clients. Now, however, I am seeing the results of feeding a high quality ALL NATURAL food. Those artificial ingredients and preservatives truly do (directly or indirectly) cause a host of problems. I'll never again recommend any food that is not totally natural.

Since the introduction of the Petsmart stores in our area, I had sharply curtailed the retail side of my business. Why try to compete with the "big guys"? There was no way to compete with their prices - they were selling some Science Diet products for less than I could purchase them wholesale! Now, not only do I have a much superior product to offer my clients, I can also offer HOME DELIVERY at no extra charge! Since Flint River will never be sold at discount prices at a pet superstore, I am developing client loyalty that will last the life of the pet, even if the owner moves out of my area.

I'm excited about working with you to bring Flint River Ranch Foods to a much wider market. By sharing this product with my clients, as well as other vets and pet care providers, we are providing a means of improving the overall health of pets in general, as well as developing a substantial income for ourselves! What a "Win-Win" proposition!!!

I hope to see you soon! Feel free to call me at any time if you have suggestions. Ann Tift and I are working hard to get our volume up so we can have a Flint River plant here in Georgia in the next year or so!

Yours truly,

Dr. Junia Childs"

** Reprinted by permission.

Original letter on file at Flint River Ranch Corporate Office

Comments from Dr. David M. McCluggage, D.V.M.

All premium diets are not alike. Some of the "premium" diets are nothing more than a regular grocery store diet with fancy marketing on the package. Unfortunately, labeling guidelines promulgated by the group called "AFFCO" do not allow the animal caretaker to be able to read a label and really know what is in the bag of dog or cat food. The result? You must rely on the reputation and ethics of the company making the food.


Often, the diets many veterinarians sell are not really premium, either. For example, we do not think the line of foods called "Science Diet" even approaches the nutritional benefits of many of the other diets that are available for your animal.


We have been using Flint River Ranch dog and cat foods for years. We believe they are of a superior quality. They are made from higher quality ingredients, do not contain preservatives, and are low-temperature baked instead of high-temperature, high-pressure, extruded diets. Extruded diets, due to the high temperature associated with their manufacturing, destroy the valuable nutrients during their processing. Most of the dog and cat foods that come as "dry" foods are in this extruded category. One of our favorite reasons to recommend Flint River Ranch diets, besides the high quality, is that they are shipped directly to you. This assures freshness as well as being a very convenient way to purchase your animal's food.


Dr. McCluggage also talks about Labels and Labeling Requirements:


All regulations that control the labels on dog foods are created by AAFCO. AAFCO, as has already been stated, is a group controlled by commercial animal food manufacturers. It is not surprising to find that there are enough loopholes in labeling requirements to make it completely impossible to know what is in a diet, let alone the quality of the diet. Any manufacturer who wishes can create the marketing image that their product is a "premium diet".


In fact, most of these premium diets are, at best, only marginally better than the average diet, and many of them are conceived entirely as a marketing ploy to sell an average diet with a higher markup, creating higher profit margins.


One example of how easy it is to use subterfuge to create an image of wholesomeness, or using a term popular in the industry, "natural", is in the use of preservatives. Many companies will use standard preservatives such as ethoxyquin; yet not mention this in the ingredient list. This is possible if the company adds the preservatives themselves instead of buying a product that already includes them as a preservative. Making the situation even worse is that it is common to then say on the package, "preserved naturally with Vitamin E". This statement naturally implies that no other chemical preservative is in the product, when in fact the company can make this claim by simply adding a little extra
Vitamin E than is required by AAFCO to meet minimal needs. The ethoxyquin can then be purchased in a product such as chicken fat that contains ethoxyquin, and thus that information never needs to be placed on the label!