Guest guest Posted May 31, 2003 Report Share Posted May 31, 2003 I've been a massage therapist for more than 17 yrs. My wife, Rachel, has been a full time professional dog trainer for more than 5 years. We have 3 girls 4, 6 and 10. We all eat dairy but no meat. My website is nurturework.com and my wife's is abetterpet.com I apologize if this seems like a commercial but you're asking for a product endorsement and my wife is a professional who has investigated this exact issue. We have 3 dogs, 7 cats, a Quaker Parrot and a rabbit (this census is ever changing). When she first began dog training full time we were busy with 2 businesses, kids and pets. But, Rachel wanted to feed our pets something healthy that was not full of chemicals, etc. One day we were cleaning out an area of the basement and she found an open bag of commercial dog food that had been there for about a year and it looked and smelled the same as the day we opened it. FIRST RED FLAG! She began researching nutrition and developed her own homemade dog treats. She began feeding our own dogs a freshly prepared diet. Because she found that a properly prepared homemade diet with supplements is best. You can read more about that in the Dr. Pitcairn book below. However, the realities of modern life and time management meant that at times it's handy to have a top quality commercial food. We have tried many of the " natural " and " premium " foods out there. She always tells clients, " Flint River Ranch Super Premium Health Food is the food I put in my dogs' (and cats') bowls! " You can read a bit more on her website but the basics are: All-natural ingredients plus essential vitamins and minerals. No by-products. No artificial flavors, colors, or chemical preservatives. No ethoxyquin, BHA, or BHT. No corn. The Flint River Ranch Puppy/Adult is the best puppy food on the market. It is easy to eat and quickly digests into the puppy's system. Water can be mixed with the kibble for young puppies. Ordinary dog foods are extruded under high pressure and extreme temperatures and then sprayed with fat and other products to encourage dogs to eat. Oven-baking changes hard to digest starches into easy-to-digest dextrins. The secret to Flint River Ranch's great nutrition is how many nutrients are present and how efficiently they are utilized when digested. The good value is baked-in, not sprayed on. ------------ All this begs the question of cost. " Holistic " companies include Solid Gold, Wysong, Cornucopia, Nature's Recipe, Natural Life and Flint River Ranch. While premium foods carry a price tag higher than your average supermarket brand, most offset this by requiring pets to be fed a reduced volume of food compared to foods made from nutritionally worthless sources. So you feed less quantity and get better nutrition and fewer vet bills. Flint River Ranch also has a home delivery plan, saving pet owners from lugging heavy bags of food from store to home. This policy of home delivery often means fresher food - rather than going from factory to warehouse (where it may sit for many months) to store and finally to you, FRR ships their food straight to the consumer from the factory. http://abetterpet.com/frr.html - My wife's site http://www.mobilepetdoc.com/food.htm - What's in your animal's food? http://earthrenewal.org/pet_wellness_and_diet.htm - A great resource And the best " all 'round " book we've found on pet health is: Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats Buy it or find it at your local library. -------------- *I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I HATE PLANTS! jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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