Innova Prime! New Grain Free dry food with no Fish Meal or Potato products.

Some of you have likely seen my thread (Peas? Potato Starch? Fish Meal? Yikes!)

where I was comparing Grain Free dry foods to use as between meal snacks for my Kitties.

I decided to give Innova Prime a try. It seems to have a lot of peas, but I decided that

I am more comfortable with peas for daily use than potato products or fish meal.  

Innova Prime (NEW to Market)

Ingredients:

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Peas, Turkey, Flaxseed, Pea Fiber, Menhaden Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a Source of Vitamin E), Natural Flavors, Dried Chicory Root Extract, Apples, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Carrots, Pumpkin, Vitamins, Cranberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Minerals, DL-Methionine, Cottage Cheese, Direct Fed Microbials, Vitamin E Supplement, Rosemary Extract

Analysis:

Crude Protein (Min) 42.0% - Crude Fat (Min) 20.0% - Crude Fiber (Max) 3.5%

Pros: Only Fish product is Menhaden Oil, which I expect cannot be a significant % of the total in a DRY food

Cons: Peas is 3rd and 6th ingredient, and likely a very large portion of the 38% of this product which is Carbs.

Well, it arrived yesterday from PFD, and The Kitties absolutely LOVED this food!  

They had it as a snack again this morning before I left for work - same result!

I like the shape - small "pancake" shaped pieces, which encourages at least a little bit of chewing.

It has a very mild and "clean" (can I say "good?") smell compared to every other dry we have used,

likely due to the lack of Fish Meal I would imagine.

While this is available at my local PetSmart (at a premium price)

I got it from PFD where it is quite reasonable for a GF dry, in the following sizes:

2 lb bag  $7.39  (or $6.28 on AutoShip)

5 lb bag  $18.79  (or $15.97 on AutoShip)

12 lb bag  $40.79  (or $34.67 on AutoShip)

Of course it has only been one day, so I'll post again if there are any relevant discoveries regarding the use of this food.

In the meantime, if anyone else has tried this food, please post with your Kitties' reactions and your thoughts!   

Update regarding Innova Prime...

Well, we made the switch "cold turkey" with no vomiting or stool issues - good start.

It has been one week now, and the Kitties still give this food Ten (of Ten) Paws Up!  

Even the extremely picky Jerry hurries to get to his bowl at snack time.

This is the first food of any type that I can remember him loving to that extreme during his ten years.

The only "bad" news is, they weren't liking Wellness Core (Dry) much anyway,

but since they tried Prime, the Core will now sit there for several hours before they finally finish it,

even when the Prime is withheld. Hmmm... this might prove to be good news for the Ferals though 

If anyone is looking for a Quality Dry food that doesn't contain Fish Meal,

I'd highly recommend Innova Prime!  

If you end up letting your Kitties try this food, please post with their reactions and your thoughts!   

Good to hear that your kitties are loving it. I am in the middle of deciding if I need to oreder a case of wet food or have my friend pick some up and bring it to me when she comes to visit.

Hey there's lots of urinary issues and crystals being reported with Wellness Core anyway so you're better off. Those ingredients for Innova Prime, I wish they wouldn't add all these weird veggies and stuff. but at least it's grain free and looks good. Funny how they all think that flaxseed is this great healthy thing! It's not unhealthy for cats but they don't process it in their liver, it can't be converted so it's completely useless to them: Flaxseed oil is of limited nutritional value to cats. There are two essential fatty acids for cats, linoleic and arachidonic (both are Omega 6 fatty acids). These fatty acids are essential in the sense that a cat cannot produce them within the body, so must obtain them through diet. Flax seed oil contains around 13% linoleic acid but no arachidonic acid. Cats do not have the pathways to convert linoleic acid into arachidonic acid, so another source of arachidonic acid is
necessary. Cats can only obtain arachidonic acid from animal products.

Well, I'm interested in how this goes for you and your cats. After about 1.5 years on Wellness Healthy Weight, I'm transitioning my cats to Young Again. It has no carbs. They love it, so far. I'll report back.

Do your cats only eat kibble? Mine get canned food, also.

Robin

bastetservant said:

Well, I'm interested in how this goes for you and your cats. After about 1.5 years on Wellness Healthy Weight, I'm transitioning my cats to Young Again. It has no carbs. They love it, so far. I'll report back.
Do your cats only eat kibble? Mine get canned food, also.
Robin

Click to expand...

Robin,
IMHO, the name is pretty deceiving.... It has carbs -
Crude Protein (min) 55%,
Crude Fat/Oil (min) 24%,
Crude Fiber (max) 4%,
Moisture (max) 10%.

This makes 7% Carbs, or 7.78% in DMB


Some statements kind of concern me too, especially the below, as we know a dry food is not the best choice for that.
Young Again Cat Food Benefits
In less than three months, Young Again may help your diabetic or pre-diabetic cat :

Better manage their diabetes and possibly reduce or eliminate their need for insulin
Increase lean muscle and lose excess fat
Want and need to eat less - and never go hungry
Quickly achieve and stay at their healthiest weight
Have much more energy and a friendlier disposition
Also avoid urinary tract issues
Produce less solid waste for a cleaner litter box
Have the soft, kitten-like fur you love to touch
Dramatically reduce your food bill considering canned food can cost two dollars or more per day

I just wanted to bring this to light....
7% carbs is very low - one of the EVOs is the same - I am not sure if the Poultry version or if the Fish version....
Anyways..... don't wanted to sound negative or anything.... I hope it works out for your kitty :cross: Just don't expect to be zero carbs, when it isn't....

It's confusing because there are two formulas. One is for diabetic cats (but I have none of those) and it has zero digestible carbs ( some cellulose). But the other formula has less than 5% (or 7% if you want to use the DMB calculation) which is from potato starch and tomato pomace. I didn't say what I meant to above, and now I can't edit. I'm fine with that much carbs, anyway. I was hoping to find others with experience with this food. I've been reluctant to change. My 6 cats who have been on the Wellness are very healthy and active, and I so seldom have a hairball issue (and they take nothing for that). But I'm willing to give it a shot. Those statements you underlined and bolded are fine with me. I hope they are true, of course. The testimonials say the same (of course). The reviews on a number of non nonconnected sites have been good.

I think the name "Young Again" is bad. :nod:




Robin

bastetservant said:

Well, I'm interested in how this goes for you and your cats. After about 1.5 years on Wellness Healthy Weight, I'm transitioning my cats to Young Again. It has no carbs. They love it, so far. I'll report back.
Do your cats only eat kibble? Mine get canned food, also.
Robin

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Robin.

Hope your Kitties will do well on Young Again  

No, my Kitties only get dry food (around 15 pieces each) as a between meal snack.

They get home made chicken for breakfast,

and a rotation of Grain Free wet foods for dinner. (By Nature 95%, Wellness GF and Evo)

Thanks for the info, Seven Wonders.

Only one formula of the Young Again has no carbs (no digestible carbs, but some cellulose). The other formula is very low carb. I didn't want to give the wrong information.

Robin

Hi Robin..... Yes... Confusing.... The info I posted, which is why IMHO is deceiving, is for the formula that says "Zero Carbs" in the packaging.....
Anyways.....
Again, hope your kitties love it and do well on it - IMHO that is the most important thing anyways :nod:
Oh, and I should add..... I am glad to see improvements such as these on the kibble arena - this food does look good, and it doesn't have all the junk our kitties don't need..... So.... If one must feed kibbles? Might as well feed one made of meat :bigthumb: