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Evo - Excited


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I went to pick up some Innova for the boys today and asked the store owner about Evo. He knew all about it but said I was the first person to ask him about it. He will be ordering in a bag for me to try when I stop by next month - no extra charge for making a special order, he just wants to know how the boys do on it so he can start talking it up with other customers. :D I don't know why but I am very excited - I probably need to get out more. :lol:

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When I saw it in the store I was so excited and bought some and Magic has been on it ever since, that was Nov 1st.
I switched Bobbie to EVO from Pro Plan, which he was eating in his foster home. He has one slightly dirty ear and I'm hoping it might clear it up.
The only negative so far and it was with Magic not so much with Bobbie is she had some fierce gas LOL for about a week while I was switching her. I did it in quarters thinking that was fine because I switched her from regular Innova but I could have done it in 10% intervals.
I got my engineer sister to figure out the conversion from Proplan cups to Innova Evo cups to switch Bobbie - I suck at math. :drinking:
He ate 5 cups of the old food per day and only 3 cups of the new food, that's a huge difference.

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I switched to Evo too (I feed 1/2 and 1/2, half kibble and half raw), and it works out great with the raw diet. So far the only drawbacks have been some stanky gas for a few days and the price of the stuff (I'm paying $42. for the 29 Lb. bag :o ). But I like the compatibility with the raw and the dogs look great :thumbs: .

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one thing i really like is that the calcium content is high enough so that people can include a good amount of fresh foods (meats, eggs, cottage cheese, veggies etc.) without having to worry about supplementing extra calcium.

if you feed for example one cup of evo per day and add 7oz of boneless raw meat and 3.5 oz of coked broccoli, you aren't even making a dent in the calcium reserve.

hopefully this will make people more comfortable to add at least some unprocessed food to the diet.

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[quote name='TDG']one thing i really like is that the calcium content is high enough so that people can include a good amount of fresh foods (meats, eggs, cottage cheese, veggies etc.) without having to worry about supplementing extra calcium.

if you feed for example one cup of evo per day and add 7oz of boneless raw meat and 3.5 oz of coked broccoli, you aren't even making a dent in the calcium reserve.

hopefully this will make people more comfortable to add at least some unprocessed food to the diet.[/quote]

I might like to try this, mixing fresh with Evo instead of Innova/Evo. Can you tell me what vegies, and should all veggies be cooked and all meat be raw? What are meat choices? Can I just stick with one meat (stew beef, for example?) ... do you really feed raw poultry and pork ... from a human standpoint this feels scary ... sorry about all the questions! Refer me to a link or book if you want, I just don't know where to start.

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Here is a great starter menu if you'd like to consider switching to a raw diet.
[url]http://dogden.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=Health&action=display&num=1074988013[/url]
If you'd like to check out some books on the subject, anything by Ian Billinghurst is great, some of his titles are "The BARF Diet" and "Give a Dog a Bone".
There are also several Yahoo groups dedicated to raw diets that are very helpful.
Generally, most start out with just one source of protein, chicken is usually the easiest, and yes, raw, bones and all. Salmonella is rarely a concern, the only times I have seen any issues with it are when the dog in question had a suppressed immune system to begin with. I myself have been feeding raw for close to 8 years, and I'd never go back to any other way. My dogs are the picture of health, shiny coats, less shedding, phenomenal teeth and breath and tons of energy. Ask as many questions as you'd like, we all did before we started :D !

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/Lokipup/Dog%20pics/000_0180.jpg[/img]

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[quote name='desertlady']I might like to try this, mixing fresh with Evo instead of Innova/Evo. Can you tell me what vegies, and should all veggies be cooked and all meat be raw? What are meat choices? Can I just stick with one meat (stew beef, for example?) ... do you really feed raw poultry and pork ... from a human standpoint this feels scary ... sorry about all the questions! Refer me to a link or book if you want, I just don't know where to start.[/quote]

i feed a home prepared diet, but am not a "barf" follower, so some of my opinions may be somewhat unpopular with those who are, but here goes:

you can add meat or veggies either raw or cooked, whichever you prefer. just keep in mind that dogs do not have the same ability to break down the cell walls of plant based foods, so you need to help - either by grinding raw fruits and veggies to a fine pulp in a blender, juicer or food processer or by steaming and mashing them up. keep an eye on your dog's stool, if you see undigested bits of fruits and veggies, they will need to be broken down into smaller particles.

your meat choices are anything you can think of and whatever is available to you. beef, chicken, turkey, lamb/mutton and pork are the most mainstream things, but if you can get your hands on goat, fish, buffalo, duck, kangaroo or whatever else, you can feed that as well.

if you feed evo and just want to add some fresh meat, you can stick with one type without problems. just be aware that beef may not be the most ideal for your individual dog. you'll have to see what works. my own dog does better on (and prefers taste wise) turkey, beef and lamb over chicken and pork. he tends to get loose stools from pork more, so i have to feed smaller portions to avoid trouble.

and yes, i do feed raw poultry and pork. it's not an issue for most dogs since their digestive system is designed for it, but fromt he human standpoint you will still have to follow the basic rules of food safety. that shouldn't be a problem tho.

one of the best books currently on the market is "K9 Kitchen Your Dogs' Diet: The Truth Behind The Hype" by by monica segal. the reason why i like it so much is the author not being biased towards any particular way of feeding a home prepared diet and rationally discusses both pros and cons of raw and cooked foods.

she believes that each dog should be fed as an individual, not just as member of a species - which i find very important. this means that the diet should be tailored to the individual dog's needs instead of just offering guideslines on how to feed "a dog".

it also has nutritional values for some raw meaty bones listed and offers a good number of recipes. it's available from sitstay.com for $23.90.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Anonymous

I don't know if anybody talked about this anywhere else on this nice site.

I contacted Naturapet and asked them about feeding EVO to a large breed puppy, because as we know on their internet site it says:

[quote]Animal feeding tests using AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) procedures substantiate that Innova EVO Adult Dog Food provides complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages.[/quote]

I guess it should read after that, large breed puppy excluded. I did ask this to them:

Is Evo designed for large breed puppy?

The answer: The new Innova EVO dog food would not be the best choice for a large breed puppy. EVO will tend to maximize growth, which could be harmful to the long term health and well being of a large breed puppy.

Large breed puppy start at 50 lbs for naturapet(50 to 80 lbs) giant breed (80 lbs and over)

rumi

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AAFCO doesn't include different sizes or breeds in their nutritional adequacy statement, and the wording is mandated by AAFCO and not adapted in any way by the manufacturer. you can find more detailed information about that here:
[url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=li101[/url]

foods are either labeled as suitable for "growth", "maintenance", "gestation/lactation" or "all lifestages", based on the nutrient profile they meet.

this applies to all commercial dog food products out there.

it's true that evo isn't a food you'd pick for a large or giant breed puppy, but the same applies to a number of other products as well - for example almost all regular puppy foods not formulated with large or giant breeds in mind.

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i'd email natura and ask about the different smell. i would expect the product to be uniform, unless they changed either the manufacturing process or ingredient composition.

as for the "not mixing kibble and raw food" - it's an old wives tale that is perpetuated by many people but completely unfounded. some individual dogs might have trouble and do better when fed kibble and raw beef separately, but it's by no means something that applies across the board as "something that is dangerous and shouldn't be done".

that being said - evo is [b]not[/b] a raw kibble. it's grain free and low carb, which is better for carnivorous animals than being stuffed with high amounts of carbs, but it is nevertheless cooked.

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[quote]MajiesMom Posted:

hummmm I bought a new bag a few days ago and it smells a lot different then the other ones. Is it just me? Does that mean anything?
[/quote]

Majies. do you mean you got your first bag of Evo and it smells different than other kibble, or this is several bags of Evo later and it's got a funky smell to it?
First time I bought it and cracked the bag, it smelled very strongly of fish, pretty awful, I gotta say :-? .

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This is probably my 4th or 5th large bag. (I started feeding it in the beginning of November). Before it smelt pretty good to me (humm how to describe it) like baked... chocolate chip muffins? I know it sounds weird but it smelt like something baked and sweet.
Now it smells acidicy, like tomatoes, there is also a lot of crumble with the kibble, more than usual. Seems more oily too. I know for sure it smells totally different.
I will email natura to see what they say.

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now that you mention acidity, the natura rep i talked to last weekend told me that they were starting to use ascorbic acid instead of ascorbate in their products. ascorbate is buffered vitamin C, which is not acidic, while ascorbic acid is. that might have something to do with it.

it does have herring in it, but i just went into the kitchen and sniffed the food in its container and while it does smell like something baked and fatty, it doesn't smell like fish to me either...

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Guest Anonymous

If you're really not that sure, I would not use it, I would either return it to where you bought it from or/and send a sample to Natura pet.

Personnaly I would contact them and they will exactly tell you what to do, maybe they will like a sample and they will tell you how to proceed about being reimburse for the bag. (hope you didn't throw the bag away, they will need the batch # /date)

What is the expiration date on the bag?

For people that don't know:

Does it smell like turpentine(I'm not sure if it is the right spelling???) Because if it smell like turpentine the fat might be rancid. Never use something that smell rancid that means that the fat is not good anymore.

Also for people that don't know you should never throw the bag away because if there is a problem with the food, the dog food company will need info from the bag/can.

Just a hint :wink: :

You should compare the ingredient from bag to bag(same food of course) because somtime the recipe change and if your dog have a diarrhea it could be the cause.

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