I saw this in a health-food store and decided to give it a shot. I won't be buying it again, though.

I mixed it with the kibble we're using this month - two dogs loved it but the third didn't want the whole bowl. She's a recent arrival, so I'm not sure of her reasons. She likes other canned food.

The long ingredient list starts out: Beef Broth, Beef, Chicken, Beef Liver, Barley, Potatoes, Egg White, Potato Starch, Carrots, Peas, Oat Fiber, Red Pepper, Guar Gum, Natural Flavor, Flaxseed Meal, Cranberries, Blueberries, Apples, Spinach, Sunflower Oil, Sodium Phosphate, Dried Bananas, Garlic, Sea Salt....

To a carnivore this looks like: Water That Meat Sat In, Meat, Meat, Meat, 2 Things That Aren't Meat, Meat, 41 Other Things That Aren't Meat.

This looks like a very nice stew. But to me, stew is what a person sits down to on a cold day. I don't see it as being natural or holistic for dogs.

I try to avoid grains for my dogs, and this formula has one whole grain and one partial. And additional starch ingredients - whole and partial potatoes and flaxseed.

True, as the label says, it has no corn, wheat, or meat byproducts.

The first two are what some dogs develop sensitivities to, but I wonder whether that will happen with other grains once we stop feeding the very common corn and wheat.

But there's no rice here, and that seems to be the next most-common in pet foods.

And the meat isn't the putrid, rancid stuff that goes into some pet foods.

So this is far from garbage, which is why I brought home a can. But neither the doggies nor I like it enough to buy more.

Pros: Lots of meat, "natural," "holistic"

Cons: Grains and other vegetables