Innnova Cat food any good?

dogsdirtbike24

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Hi,
We are going to be adopting a cat in a few days and I am trying to figure out what food to buy him. He is an adult of unknown age, not overweight at about 12 lbs. He looks like a maine coon or a mix. He is currently on cat chow but we want to switch him off that as soon as he settles in here since it isnt any good. I feed my dogs innova (not EVO the regular stuff), is this considered a good brand for cat food too? If it isnt can anyone recommend something else to start him on?

Thanks for any help, my husband had a cat before when he was a kid but I am new to this.
 

salemwitchchild

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Yes it is one of the top brands. Congrats and thanks for adopting. I just adopted a kitty myself that resembles a Maine Coon.
 

sharky

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Yes it is a very good cat food also .... The formulas I will warn you the formulas are changeing ...
 

vanillasugar

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Originally Posted by sharky

Yes it is a very good cat food also .... The formulas I will warn you the formulas are changeing ...
Really? What are they changing? I hadn't heard anything about this! I'm very interested!!
 

sharky

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They reformulated the light ... it now has triple the magnesium and phos as the old formula... I was told by the local pet shop that the other formulas are going to follow.... I read the new vs old dry and liked the old better...

Just another good brand changing formulas without notifing customer ... OHHH AM I TIRED OF IT ( I am not yelling just pissy)
 

salemwitchchild

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Originally Posted by sharky

They reformulated the light ... it now has triple the magnesium and phos as the old formula... I was told by the local pet shop that the other formulas are going to follow.... I read the new vs old dry and liked the old better...

Just another good brand changing formulas without notifing customer ... OHHH AM I TIRED OF IT ( I am not yelling just pissy)
Which is why it's a good idea to take at least a quick look at the ingredients for changes before buying even if you think you know it's good.
 

gingersmom

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I thought that the ingredients looked good, but found that it crumbles VERY easily, and my two won't eat dry food crumbs - they only want the whole pieces
, so I won't be buying that brand again. I'm sticking with Nutro/Royal Canin, mostly.
 

muttigreemom

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I'm pretty picky about dog and cat foods because in my brood we have a mix of allergies, sensitive stomachs, prior urinary blockages from food with higher amounts of magnezium, panic attacks... etc, etc.

Swtiched all dogs, cats and kittens to Innova Evo mixed with some raw and now no allergies, no sensitive stomachs (actually we even switched to this food cold turkey and had none of the switchover symptoms), no panic attacks. My vet actually likes it better than the prescription food for Az's urinary problems due to its low magnezium level (keep in mind this is the Evo, I don't know the mag level in the regular innova food). Everyone's fur is the softest its ever been. Peewee feels like velvet now and even Karma who has a rough Labrador coat is silky smooth and glows (someone said once it looks like we use shoe polish on her
) Gemini is a senior cat and was losing weight, now she's a perfectly healthy weight. Karma and Boo had gained weight on other foods, now they're at perfect weight too... and I never have to measure their food on this. I free feed everyone and these are the results.... and I firmly believe this is due entirely to the food being grain free.

Actually, pardon my babbling for a second, but I even got into an argument with my MIL about this. She's a former vet tech who railed on me because I feed my dogs beef bones. Told me it was dangerous. I told her no, COOKED bones are dangerous. Raw bones are just fine. When she then went on a roll about certain "good" dog foods I then pointed out that these "good" foods are generally loaded with corn and are the same foods that have made both my and her animals sick in the past. "And besides... think about animals in the wild. They're carnivores. They eat meat and bones. When is the last time you saw a wolf or a lion sitting in a field grinding corn?"

Sorry for the long post, but animal nutrition is a hobby of mine and I've spent a lot of hours reading about this. I firmly believe we should keep an animal as close as we can to a natural diet for their own health - and I think this about humans as well. If you choose to feed a kibble/canned, given the current options out there I do believe Innova Evo is the closest you can come to your own cat's/dog's natural diet, and the health changes once we switched to Innova in my cats, my mom's cats and my dogs are proof of this.

I'll get off my soapbox now
I can't help myself... I'm pretty passionate about this subject
 

sharky

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I found Raw insticnt by Natures Variety to be the closest
.... Careful with Seniors on EVO ( volumes of info on that )..... Yes the raw bones issue is funny to those not reading up on raw ...lol...
 

muttigreemom

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Lol yeah it made for interesting thanksgiving dinner conversation thats for sure
Always a good idea to trash your MIL in front of everyone over thanksgiving dinner
Oy, when will I learn!


I've looked into natures variety raw instinct, and while I love that they have no potato, what doesn't sit well with me is tapioca being the second ingredient since it's a starch... it's basically the same idea as having potato. And going by where tapioca is listed in the ingredients (second) and where potato is listed on the ingredients in Innova Evo (fifth), and that ingredients are usually listed in the order of the amount included in the food, it... well it doesnt sit well with me.

EDIT: Sorry, tapioca is the third ingredient in the cat food.. its the second ingredient in the dog food. Either way, it still doesnt sit right with me, but I wanted to catch my counting mistake
 

tiffanyjbt

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I just started Duke (my 6 1/2 mo. old siamese) on EVO. He never had any major issues with the Purina Naturals that we were feeding him, but his litterbox was FULL in less than 24 hours more often than not! I read that all the fillers, like corn meal and other grains, in some of these formulas were the cause of that. I'm also starting him on a partial-raw diet, meaning his wet foods and treats are raw chicken hearts, liver, gizzards, etc. I'm lucky 'cause my cats a chow hound and will eat pretty much anything you put in his bowl.

Talk to your vet about it too, because different cats need different diets.

I put a table of ingredients in this thread if you want to compare:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...t=92509&page=3

Heres a decent ingredients list, though its from the Innova site and therefore biased towards their product. They also allow you to do comparisons on different brands.

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php...F%2Fingredient

Congrats on the adoption and welcome to TCS!
 

white cat lover

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Originally Posted by sharky

I found Raw insticnt by Natures Variety to be the closest
.... Careful with Seniors on EVO ( volumes of info on that )..... Yes the raw bones issue is funny to those not reading up on raw ...lol...
I too am getting to really like the Raw Instinct! I bought a bag of Raw Instinct to try as I need small kibble as well as a bag of Innova adult(not EVO). I know they'll eat the Innova kibble as its been through the "taste test". I put out the Raw Instinct & I was amazed at the texture. It is little bites of kibble, but it also is crumbled up. You almost have to see it to understand. Anyways, since switching from Nutro to the Innova/Raw Instinct mix, my Twitch has been "kicking it up". She has been playing so much more than normal, her coat looks awesome, & she even argues with me yesterday over who got to sit in the recliner(naturally, she won).

I have fed EVO before & really like it, but now looking back, the kits did good on it but not as good as they are doing now on the regular Innova/Raw Instinct mix.

ETA: All that rambling & I never once mentioned that I give Innova 2 paws up! (Just read the ingredients label before you buy a bag!)
 
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