Due to the shady technique of ingredient splitting, nearly any dog food can place meat as the first ingredient.

This one happens to be more honest.

If instead of rice this kibble designer had cut the precooking weight of the rice in half and added corn in its place, the chicken meal would have moved to the first position on the list.

Even though the amount of chicken meal would have remained exactly the same, it’s easy to deceive us into thinking there’s more meat in one recipe versus another.

I rarely pay attention to that rule. The Guaranteed Analysis is a better place to start any analysis.

I agree with your assessment.. After re-visiting this product I’ve upgraded my rating to 4 stars.

Thanks for taking the time to present a polite and reasonable argument.

It seems the only reason it isn’t a 4 star food is that the grain isn’t being split with other grains, therefore brown rice is the first ingredient.  

Splitting the brown rice with some barley and white rice wouldn’t make this food any better, in my opinion, but that’s the only difference between this and many of the 4 star foods.