Evo

whiteforest

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I've been feeding EVO for more than a year now and our cats have done great on it until recently. [Obviously, the kitten hasn't been on it that long.] But the last 2 bags I've bought seem "off". They have been getting diarrhea on and off, and their litter box smells waaaayyy more than usual. I hate to take them off the grain-free and this is a brand that I have chosen through great research. I would try Wellness, but it's even more money so I don't want to if I don't have to. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Note: Both cats have been to the vet recently, and are otherwise perfectly healthy and behaving normally. I thought the first bag may have just gone bad so I returned it to the store. I also took them off the dry food and made their food for a few days during which all symptoms cleared up and returned again when they went back to the EVO.
 

mschauer

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I've been feeding the EVO dry for at least a year also. I haven't had the diarrhea problem but one of mine started throwing up every other day. This started about a week or so ago. I feed dry in the morning and wet in the evening and alternate daily between EVO and Pinnacle for the dry. I finally realized it was the day after feeding her EVO that she was throwing up. Even though she was throwing up a long time after eating the EVO I thought it might be related because she was throwing up more stuff than should have been in her stomach given how long it had been since she last ate. So I wondered if she was suddenly having trouble digesting the EVO. I stopped the EVO and she stopped throwing up.

I'm pretty sure this started with a new bag of EVO. I looked at the ingredients on the bag and nothing immediately jumped out as being different from before but there are so many ingredients I could easy miss something.
 

sharky

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I wonder if Natura is doing to Evo what they did to California Natural and possibley changing ingrediants...
 
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whiteforest

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It was just the dry EVO causing your cat to vomit, and not the canned?
 

mschauer

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I just remembered I have a list of the old ingredients. They have changed the formula. My list of the old ingredients doesn't include the supplements but here is a comparison of the other ingredients in the order they appear in the ingredients list:

[Edit: I can't get my side by side lists here separated. The spaces between them are being squeezed out.]

OLD NEW
turkey turkey
chicken chicken meal
chicken meal chicken
herring meal herring meal
potato chicken fat
chicken fat potato
egg egg
turkey meal turkey meal
apples apples
carrots carrots
tomatoes cranberries
cottage cheese alfalfa sprouts
dried chicory root tomatoes
herring oil herring oil
rosemary extract cottage cheese
dried chicory root
cottage cheese

The addition of alfalfa sprouts is the biggest difference I see. There could be significant differences in the supplements though.
 

sharky

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ALFALFA IS a high ALLERGEN IN CATS... many BRANDS REMOVED IT as it was CAUSEING tummy issues
 
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whiteforest

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Thanks for that! Other than the alfalfa sprouts it does look the same, but they are ordered differently as well, so perhaps the quantities have changed. Maybe the amounts of certain things were just tolerable before? Or possibly the alfalfa causing it. At any rate, I have sent an email to Natura asking if there has been a formula change, and would be happy to post the response here when I get it, if you're interested. I am thinking about going back to Wellness, but I feel sort of guilty if I don't have them on a grain-free diet, being that I believe it's best.
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by whiteforest

Thanks for that! Other than the alfalfa sprouts it does look the same, but they are ordered differently as well, so perhaps the quantities have changed. Maybe the amounts of certain things were just tolerable before? Or possibly the alfalfa causing it. At any rate, I have sent an email to Natura asking if there has been a formula change, and would be happy to post the response here when I get it, if you're interested. I am thinking about going back to Wellness, but I feel sort of guilty if I don't have them on a grain-free diet, being that I believe it's best.
Yes, please post their response.
 
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whiteforest

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I'm still waiting for an email response, but in my impatience I decided to call them this morning. I got a very short and quick response that they changed the formula and added alfalfa sprouts and cranberries. When I asked why they added alfalfa sprouts when they can cause diarrhea, vomiting and are considered toxic she said "It is only toxic in large quantities otherwise we wouldn't have put it in the food. Is there anything else?"

Well duh! I don't know what else I thought they would tell me. I'll still wait for the email response. In the meantime, I'll be debating to switch my cats to Wellness CORE (it's way more money) or the regular Wellness formula.
 

mschauer

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Gee aren't they helpful?

I emailed this morning also. I'll post the response when and if I get one. Based on your experience I doubt their response will be reassuring.
 

alleygirl

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Originally Posted by mschauer

Gee aren't they helpful?

I emailed this morning also. I'll post the response when and if I get one. Based on your experience I doubt their response will be reassuring.
They were not very helpful and responsive when I emailed them about the California Natural formula change a while back either.

Have you considered Nature's Variety Instinct for a grain free dry? It is cheaper than the wellness core. I have recently switched Riley to it (mix) and he seems to like it better than he did the Evo.
 

rebochan

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Originally Posted by sharky

ALFALFA IS a high ALLERGEN IN CATS... many BRANDS REMOVED IT as it was CAUSEING tummy issues
How long has that been in the EVO? My trial on EVO was in January and they both had tummy problems until I took them off. I might still have the old bag at home, I'm just not somewhere where I can check on it.

Sheesh, that would really explain the sudden outbreak of people with EVO problems!
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

They were not very helpful and responsive when I emailed them about the California Natural formula change a while back either.

Have you considered Nature's Variety Instinct for a grain free dry? It is cheaper than the wellness core. I have recently switched Riley to it (mix) and he seems to like it better than he did the Evo.
My little monsters are picky. I always refer to them as "monsters" in food discussions, at all other times they are my "babies."
In grainless drys they will only eat EVO and Pinnacle. I have tried NV, Core, Orijen.

Edit: Sorry, I just realized you weren't responding to my post.
 

artgecko

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Great! And I just ordered 2, 15lb bags of EVO from PFD. Hopefully they will still be selling the "old" bags without the alfalfa as I can't just pop by the store to return them.

Art *sigh*
 
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whiteforest

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Apparently they changed the formula sometime in December-ish. The formula change came whit the new bag design.
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by whiteforest

Apparently they changed the formula sometime in December-ish. The formula change came whit the new bag design.
That's interesting. I'm pretty sure I'm on at least my second bag with the new design. Zara's throwing up did get worst over the course of a few weeks. Maybe it takes time for the alfalfa sprouts, or whatever it is, to bother them. Of course if it alfalfa sprouts are an allergen symptoms can show up in either a short or long period of time.
 
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