Evo good or bad for cats?

I am looking at feeding my cats Evo, but have heard that it might be too high in protein. It might cause hyperlipidemia or kidney problems. Now that was stated on a dog thread, but could it be the same for cats?

I call Evo a 50/50 food ... why because in about 50% of young cats ( kitten thru age7) cant handle the richness... the other 50% do great ...

My dog handled the dog Evo fairly well my cat didnt at all...

As far as kidneys , high protein when there young wont hurt my worry is giving only Evo dry with only 10% mositure could cause issues later...

I talked to my vet and we tried the Bark at the moon by solid gold and my dog is doing great ( it has less fat than Evo ) .... I will try the cat version when it comes out to see if Zoey can handle it ...


Why not just do raw ???

I've heard that Evo is a good brand. But like sharky said, it depends on your cat. What can your cat handle? As for kidney problems, I haven't heard of that. I've heard high protein can cause bone problems later on, but not kidney. Ask a vet?

I use EVO.

Cats already in kidney failure will experience a build-up of byproducts from protein metabolism. However, research conducted during the last decade has shown that protein does not harm healthy kidneys.

The research that supported the link between high protein and kidney disease was first done in the 1920s and then in the 1980s on RATS. Their results paper stated "male rodents exhibited progressive renal failure
when fed a high-protein diet."

Unfortunately this information has been erroneously extrapolated to other
species.

Further- as cats (and dogs for that matter) age their digestive systems become less efficient at metabolizing protein, so they need more and higher quality protein rather than less.

I fed my Min Pin EVO for years. She's now ten years old and going strong. We have recently switched her to raw, though. I do fed my 1 year old foster kitty EVO canned, though. She loves it! Plus, she's fine and healthy. I think Innova EVO is a wonderful food. Most "cat" foods these days are just low protien, high carb cereals. Kudos to Innova!

I am doing the gradual 1/2 and 1/2 change over from Life's Abundance to evo. They seem to being just fine. I dont see why high protein would harm them...if they are on a raw diet..isnt that even higher in protein? I am pretty much a newbie at this...so i have gotten most of my information from this site...from good cat food to the perfect litter ...feline pine *grin

Originally Posted by reddicequeen

I am doing the gradual 1/2 and 1/2 change over from Life's Abundance to evo. They seem to being just fine. I dont see why high protein would harm them...if they are on a raw diet..isnt that even higher in protein? I am pretty much a newbie at this...so i have gotten most of my information from this site...from good cat food to the perfect litter ...feline pine *grin

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Raw food is 50-80% moisture, yes the dry matter protein is higher but , dry food is 8-12% moisture the raws higher moisture helps aid in digestion of the protein .. My kidney girl is doing well on raw and canned due to digestability of the protein ,,,,, dry food isnt nearly as digestable and the higher proteins are less ie over 40%

I feed my cats Nutro mixed with 1/3 Innova Evo. They love the taste of the Evo and do great with the mixture.

I have a question about EVO. Normally I would think this person was doing the wrong thing but she has had animals for a long time and knows a lot about both dogs and cats and nutrition for both. She has a lot of animals, 5 dogs, 6 cats, several birds, and a horse. She rescued one of my cats as an orphaned kitten when he was only about three weeks old. Since she has retired, as an economy measure, she has started feeding the EVO for dogs to both her dogs and cats. She says it is higher in protein than most cat food and that they add taurine to their dog food as well as their cat food. I know the rule of thumb is that this should never be done but as I said she does know a lot about animals.

Originally Posted by Denice

I have a question about EVO. Normally I would think this person was doing the wrong thing but she has had animals for a long time and knows a lot about both dogs and cats and nutrition for both. She has a lot of animals, 5 dogs, 6 cats, several birds, and a horse. She rescued one of my cats as an orphaned kitten when he was only about three weeks old. Since she has retired, as an economy measure, she has started feeding the EVO for dogs to both her dogs and cats. She says it is higher in protein than most cat food and that they add taurine to their dog food as well as their cat food. I know the rule of thumb is that this should never be done but as I said she does know a lot about animals.

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I would be concerned since taurine is not the only difference in dog and cat food... She may have got the okay from a vet( mine gave me the okay to feed my dog some specific wet cat foods) but if not I would be weary as the EVO dog also has alot of garlic ...

I hear that Evo causes the animal to drink a lot more water then they normally do. But vets say that is ok, it wont hurt them to drink more water. The question is, if this is the case, then it would help with the digestion process that I have read on here mentioned, right? My guys already drink a good amount of water. And I got them a drinkwell fountain, to get them to drink more often. The cats any ways, my Chi's are the ones who drink a lot. But they both are able to use the fountain.

Imho... if you try Evo ( I think it is a great food for those that can handle it ) make sure to give at least 50% wet food ... wet and water will dilute the protein s and aid in digestion

Originally Posted by Denice

she has started feeding the EVO for dogs to both her dogs and cats. She says it is higher in protein than most cat food and that they add taurine to their dog food as well as their cat food. I know the rule of thumb is that this should never be done but as I said she does know a lot about animals.

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The main reason dogs food is not good for cats is because there is too little taurin in dogs food.
But taurin IS in meat-proteins. So with the high levels of animal protein there should also be enought with taurine in Evo. Added taurin or not.

Me thinks.

I did read somewhere taurin doesnt fare well of the food processing, it is why it usually must be added.
But still. With animal proteins in such abundance there should be enought left, even if some is destroyed.

My cats drink LOTS of water. So do i still have to give them wet food too? And is there a wet EVO food?

Originally Posted by reddicequeen

My cats drink LOTS of water. So do i still have to give them wet food too? And is there a wet EVO food?

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Yes. I feed pudge innova evo wet and felidae wet.

Originally Posted by reddicequeen

My cats drink LOTS of water. So do i still have to give them wet food too? And is there a wet EVO food?

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As carnivores, cats are meant to get their water from their food. Drinking water, especially in high amounts is somewhat unnatural for them. I would reccomend feeding wet food to increase the amout of moisture they're getting the way they're supposed to. Drinking a lot of water is a sign of how taxing dry food is to digest.

When I fed my Min Pin EVO dry, I always made sure I added water to it and let it sit for just a few minutes. I had no money for canned, so water did the trick.

Cats are obligate carnivores, designed to thrive on very high protein diets.

My cats love EVO. I can't really afford it but when they can get it, they love it.

They also adore EVO canned, which is more comparably priced to the regular canned.

If I could have things exactly the way I wanted them, they'd eat EVO dry and rotate between a few kinds of canned, including EVO. I am a huge believer in this food.

Incidentally, Natura has published a study that showed that cats drank more water when being fed dry EVO than when fed other dry diets. I wouldn't use this as a license to skip the wet food, but it was definitely interesting.

I have done some further reading and this is what I came up with on Evo. Granted it is leaning towards dog food. But it should still aply to cat food too. What do you all think?


What about Raw instinct?, EVO?, Solid Gold?, Wellness?, etc etc:

EVO, Solid Gold's Barking at the Moon and Nature's Variety's Raw Instincts are grain free marketing gimmicks made with potato or tapioca. These foods are not raw substitutes at all- they are fully cooked and contain high glycemic starches. The high ash content in these foods is another major concern. Here is what Mary Strauss, renowned canine nutrition expert, has to say in response to my comments about EVO:

"I do agree with this, (my comments on ash) and your points about white potatoes may also be valid. I will admit to some concern over reports from people who have fed EVO for some time, whose dogs do not do that well with it (many drink a lot more water with this food than other kibbles, for unknown reasons, and reports of poor coats after a few months on this food also seem common)."

Wysong makes a great freeze-dried food (Archetype Burgers), but their kibble contains excessive grains, salt, dairy products, yeast, etc. Nature's Variety makes great frozen raw and freeze-dried diets, but their canned and dry formulations contain menadione derived vitamin K supplements- although they may be removing this ingredient in the future.

Wellness will not disclose the form of vitamin K supplement in their food and it is highly suspected to be menadione derived, so I won't use their food- not to mention that they refuse to disclose the percentage of their formulas that are made up of meat- most likely because they are ashamed of the high percentage of grain that makes up their food. Wellness also has a reputation for making dogs fat- again, probably because of the grain content. Solid Gold's formulas contain gluten and their scare-tactic advertising has lost my respect for the company. Abady is another company guilty of shady advertising (they have implied that feeding their food will reduce congenital abnormalities in puppies!) and they use questionable ingredients such as mystery meat and menhaden fish meal. Nutro uses a menadione derived synthetic vitamin K supplement. These brands are some of the ones that people think are high quality and great for their pets. These brands can also be expensive. Don't be fooled by marketing which has gained some of them a decent reputation. (You cannot learn about pet foods from what you see in advertisements!)

I won't even address all of the inferior ingredients that are found in grocery store brands like Pedigree, Iams, Purina, etc except to say "Stay out of the pet food aisle in your grocery store!" Stick to the above recommendations and you can't go wrong.

There are some foods that use barley and other gluten-containing grains (wheat and rye) which some dogs might seem to handle alright for awhile, but which I refuse to feed because of possible damage to the intestinal lining and ensuing allergies and health problems that gluten can cause. Some contain potatoes which may be hand picked to not be green (although they don't even do a good job of this for the potatoes they sell in the grocery store for people!) and cooked enough to eradicate all of the toxins- but I'm not taking any chances. As far as tapioca, I feel is just too high in glycemic index and devoid of nutrients and fiber to be of any value. My list goes on. Yes, I nit-pick. I look at every ingredient and its potential benefit or harm to my dog's health. Yes, I have left off a lot of very popular foods that many people recommend because my own research tells me that there is better. The above four kibble formulas are the ones that have passed all of my nit-picking

Originally Posted by semiferal

Incidentally, Natura has published a study that showed that cats drank more water when being fed dry EVO than when fed other dry diets. I wouldn't use this as a license to skip the wet food, but it was definitely interesting.

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Kinda surprised Natura made those findings public since they don't reflect well on their product.

As Vanillasugar has pointed out "drinking a lot of water is a sign of how taxing dry food is to digest". Dry food soaks up water like a sponge (drop a piece into a glass of water - come back a little later and see how large the piece got). Your cat's body works hard to process dry food, and uses up a lot of precious water to do so.

There's evidence to suggest that dry food may contribute to kidney disease. Many vets now tell clients whose cats have been diagnosed with renal problems to stop feeding dry food.

Though I agree that EVO is a high quality dry food, it's still dry food and IMO should only be fed sparingly.