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Flint River
Ranch - High Quality Nutrition for Your Pet
One of the
things that makes Flint River Ranch
exceptional in the industry is that they only use high
quality human-grade ingredients. This is in
sharp contrast to well over 95% of pet food manufacturers,
including Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, Nutro, Purina One
and Pro-Plan, which all use pet-grade meats,
grains and other ingredients.
Pet-grade
food is food which is deemed unfit for human consumption by
the FDA. Pet-grade grains include those which are moldy or
rancid, while pet-grade meats include those termed "4D,"
which refers to meat and other products derived from an
animal which arrived at the slaughterhouse either dying,
dead, diseased or disabled. From these 4D meats come the
by-products which are also used in these foods. By-products
are a mix of such items as chicken feet, chicken heads, duck
heads, beaks, fish heads, hides, hoofs and intestines.
The Flint River Ranch
Company will not purchase fully range fed chicken as
they can be sick or diseased. And, while Flint River Ranch
endeavors to use as much organic fed chicken as possible,
the chicken they use is considered human-grade quality. The
same applies to Flint River Ranch trout and lamb.
Flint River's Menhaden fish comes from the North
Atlantic ocean, the lamb is from New Zealand and is range
grass-fed certified and the trout is raised in large
cold-water ponds and trout farms.
Flint River's
grain supplies come from companies that provide the highest
quality ingredients to human food manufacturers. Flint River
Ranch will not purchase grain from farms because of the
possibility of toxic molds. All meat products are processed
for Flint River Ranch by USDA approved slaughter houses,
except for the lamb. However, the lamb is USDA inspected and
approved.
California, where Flint
River Ranch food is manufactured follows 4-D
regulatory laws. Flint River will never use Dying, Dead
(example an animal that has died in the field), Disabled or
Diseased animals in their products.
Compared to commercial dog
food brands, we consider Flint River Ranch to
be the best choice. Oven-baked, naturally preserved,
human-grade ingredients and ALWAYS, delivered fresh
to your door!
Vitamins and
Minerals Explained
Vitamins
| Vitamin A |
Vision; growth;
immune function; fetal development; cellular
differentiation; transmembrane protein transfer |
| Vitamin D |
Maintenance of
mineral status; skeletal structure; muscle
contraction; blood clotting; nerve conduction; cell
signaling; phosphorous balance |
| Vitamin E |
Defense against
oxidative damage via free radical scavenging |
| Vitamin K |
Activation of
clotting factors, bone proteins and other proteins |
| Vitamin B1
(thiamin) |
Energy and
carbohydrate metabolism; activation of ion channels
in neural tissue |
| Riboflavin |
Enzyme functions |
| Vitamin B6 |
Glucose
generation; red blood cell function; niacin
synthesis; nervous system function; immune response;
hormone regulation; gene activation |
| Niacin |
Enzyme functions |
| Pantothenic Acid |
Energy metabolism |
| Vitamin B12 |
Enzyme functions |
| Folic Acid |
Amino acid and
nucleotide metabolism; mitochondrial protein
synthesis |
Minerals
| Calcium
|
Formation of bones and teeth; blood coagulation;
nerve impulse transmission; muscle contraction; cell
signaling |
| Phosphorus |
Skeletal structure; DNA and RNA structure; energy
metabolism; locomotion; acid-base balance |
| Magnesium |
Enzyme functions; muscle and nerve-cell membrane
stability; hormone secretion and function; mineral
structure of bones and teeth |
| Sodium |
Acid-base balance; regulation of osmotic pressure;
nerve impulse generation and transmission |
| Potassium |
Acid-base balance; nerve-impulse transmission;
enzymatic reactions; transport functions |
| Chlorine |
Acid-base balance; osmolarity of extracellular
fluids |
| Iron |
Hemoglobin and myoglobin synthesis; energy
metabolism |
| Copper |
Connective tissue formation; iron metabolism; blood
cell formation; melanin pigment formation; myelin
formation; defense against oxidative damage |
| Zinc |
Enzyme reactions; cell replication; protein and
carbohydrate metabolism; skin function; wound
healing |
| Manganese |
Enzyme functions; bone development; neurological
function |
| Selenium |
Defense against oxidative damage; immune response |
| Iodine |
Thyroid hormone synthesis; cell differentiation;
growth and development of puppies; regulation of
metabolic rate |
In addition
to rejecting pet-grade foods and by-products, Flint
River Ranch uses no artificial colors or flavors,
and no ethoxyquin, BHA or BHT, propyl gallate, propylene
glycol or other chemical preservatives. Perhaps the most
notable of these, ethoxyquin, has been the subject of a
great deal of debate, as ethoxyquin is classified as a
pesticide.
While
ethoxyquin is allowed in pet-grade foods, the maximum amount
of ethoxyquin allowable by law in human-grade food is five
parts per million, or the equivalent of 0.0005 of 1%.
If ethoxyquin levels in food exceeds that amount, the food
is then deemed unfit for human consumption. Because
ethoxyquin is cheaper than many other chemical
preservatives, it is used in the vast majority of pet foods
you see in grocery and pet supply stores.
Labeling
Laws
Some manufacturers simply list ethoxyquin as the letter
'E' on their ingredients panels, something consumers often
mistake for vitamin E instead. In other cases, ethoxyquin
can be contained in the meats purchased by the pet food
manufacturer at the time of purchase, but because that
manufacturer itself doesn't add additional ethoxyquin to the
product, they are not required to list ethoxyquin in the
product's ingredients, based on the way the laws are
written.
Labeling
laws consider it acceptable to add a couple of organic
chickens to a ton of pet food and say "we use organic
chickens" on the label.
The word
"meal" means reduced in size. The flesh is cooked, some
water removed and reduced in size (ground) in order for a
uniform mix of the meat, ground grains, vitamins and
chelated minerals. There are no rendered by-products
in Flint River Ranch foods.
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