Thread: Innova Evo Canned Cat Food

Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by NCarver

The Wellness is pate style. Bought a couple of cans a few months ago when I bought some Wellness Core dry but nobody liked them. Couple of bucks down the drain (or into the trash). Of course that doesn't mean your guy won't like it.

We buy Fancy Feast at Walmart--that is how we try to reduce cost. By far cheaper than buying anything at Petco or the like. Though with four MCs, there are days we go through 8 cans, at $.50-.75/can, so definitely adds up. But the "gourmet brands" are more like $1 and up (and then we end up throwing much of this out). All the dry comes from Petco, though.

Thanks - your MCs only eat 2 cans each per day?? The 3oz cans? Enzo eats like 13oz a day........... how old are your kitties?


[EDIT] Oops, I forgot... you feed dry too That makes sense! I read the Fancy Feast feeding guidelines and it says to give them one 3oz can per 3 pounds of body weight. So, that would mean that Enzo would currently need 4 cans per day! Eek! Does it work out cheaper to feed wet AND dry? I've never fed Enzo dry food... just not sure how I feel about feeding dry. What is Fancy Feast dry like?

I just read that Fancy Feast has meat by-product.........

Originally Posted by Meredith

I just read that Fancy Feast has meat by-product.........

Yes, which is why I don't consider it a "gourmet" cat food. However, you should know that the meat by-products are not being used as the main source of meat in Fancy Feast. I just looked at a bunch of flavors, and meat by-products is the fifth or sixth ingredient. The first three are virtually always some kind of broth and two regular meats. In the flavors that include wheat gluten to thicken their "gravy," meat by-products is always listed AFTER the wheat gluten. In one, it is even listed after spinach (there are little bits of spinach in a number of the flavors). From this I conclude that meat by-products makes up a very small fraction, so I am not concerned (even if also not pleased). Fancy Feast is nothing like the cheap brands that have meat by-products or poutry by-products as their primary meat ingredients. How much wheat gluten does it take to thicken the gravy in a 3oz can? Darn little, and yet the meat by-products are even less. So I am not losing any sleep over this. On the other hand, if we could find some "better" foods that our cats genuinely liked, that would be great. Having tried most everything on the market in the US, we have had no luck! If you are dead set against feeding your cat any amount of meat by-products I can certainly understand that. My advice then is to not ever let them have any Fancy Feast or they will no longer be willing to eat any "gourmet" cat foods. That has been our experience. Part of the problem is that most of the gourmet canned foods are these sticky pates that are almost impossible for the cats to eat--they just spread all over the bottom of a dish and cannot be picked up. The only better quality foods we have had any luck with are Natural Balance and Pro Plan Selects.

Originally Posted by NCarver

Yes, which is why I don't consider it a "gourmet" cat food. However, you should know that the meat by-products are not being used as the main source of meat in Fancy Feast. I just looked at a bunch of flavors, and meat by-products is the fifth or sixth ingredient. The first three are virtually always some kind of broth and two regular meats. In the flavors that include wheat gluten to thicken their "gravy," meat by-products is always listed AFTER the wheat gluten. In one, it is even listed after spinach (there are little bits of spinach in a number of the flavors). From this I conclude that meat by-products makes up a very small fraction, so I am not concerned (even if also not pleased). Fancy Feast is nothing like the cheap brands that have meat by-products or poutry by-products as their primary meat ingredients. How much wheat gluten does it take to thicken the gravy in a 3oz can? Darn little, and yet the meat by-products are even less. So I am not losing any sleep over this. On the other hand, if we could find some "better" foods that our cats genuinely liked, that would be great. Having tried most everything on the market in the US, we have had no luck! If you are dead set against feeding your cat any amount of meat by-products I can certainly understand that. My advice then is to not ever let them have any Fancy Feast or they will no longer be willing to eat any "gourmet" cat foods. That has been our experience. Part of the problem is that most of the gourmet canned foods are these sticky pates that are almost impossible for the cats to eat--they just spread all over the bottom of a dish and cannot be picked up. The only better quality foods we have had any luck with are Natural Balance and Pro Plan Selects.

Thanks!!! Very helpful

Thanks!

Originally Posted by candes

Teddies vet ponited out something that really makes sense. A cats "normal diet" is by products. Brains, intestines etc....

Oh and unless you buy "top shelf" premium food, they all will have by products. Even science diet has by products (mid shelf)..

On the wellness, I feel teddies muscle mass has picked up. Unless it is nornal growth.. And his coat is starting to really look nice.

Thanks! What does Wellness look like? Is it a pate, or?

Originally Posted by candes

Pate. But I can cut it into nice chunks with a fork, since it ain't overly mushy.

I know you are worried about by products. But I have a concern that is beyond this. I will not feed my family anything from China, and that includes my kitties. Busniess folks in China will poisen babies for a profit. And almost killed my moggie nala. Most cat foods have ingredients from China. That is the main reason I use Wellness.

Thanks!

I have settled on Felidae... I really like the look of the ingredients - I hope Enzo likes it! If he doesn't... I'll try Wellness! Only a couple of weeks til he arrives

What are the disadvantages of grain in cat food?

That's quite an upsetting video. I couldn't work out what the point of the tests were but the dogs were so lack-luster it was heart breaking, and all of them seem to have some sort of wound or sore around their back legs. It's ironic, I've been trying to find biscuits to swap the RC Kitten 36 with and have tried 4 or 5 brands, and the only two they seem to like as much as RC K36 are RC Maine Coon (which encourages runny bum syndrome) or Iams, and I'm certainly not buying THAT again.
Thanks for posting, Candes. It amazes me that these firms get away with it. I realise some stuff needs to be tested on someone or something, but whatever they're doing doesn't seem to agree with those dogs, or the kitten, and I don't feel inclined to fund them in the future.

I don't think I will watch that video... I'm too much of a coward and afraid I'll lose sleep over it.
I wonder if these horrible things are going on at all the big petfood producers...

That video is awful... how sad.

I'll lighten the mood here! I've read some reviews about Fancy Feast and a lot of people state that Fancy Feast is like feeding your cats McDonalds everyday... what are your opinions?

Originally Posted by Meredith

Thanks - your MCs only eat 2 cans each per day?? The 3oz cans? Enzo eats like 13oz a day........... how old are your kitties?


[EDIT] Oops, I forgot... you feed dry too That makes sense! I read the Fancy Feast feeding guidelines and it says to give them one 3oz can per 3 pounds of body weight. So, that would mean that Enzo would currently need 4 cans per day! Eek! Does it work out cheaper to feed wet AND dry? I've never fed Enzo dry food... just not sure how I feel about feeding dry. What is Fancy Feast dry like?

Right, it is because they eat dry too. When Zephyr (now one) and Remy (now two) were both growing rapidly there certainly were days when we went through (a lot) more cans. Also one of our girls eats mainly dry, so rarely more than half a can per day. The main reason we feed dry is that they love to graze off and on and we just cannot be getting canned food out every hour for somebody. Dry is somewhat cheaper too. Remember that (as came up in another recent thread) the canned food is 75-80% water while dry is more like 10%. So there isn't really that much food value in a $.75 3oz can of food. Even paying $25 for a 7lbs bag of high quality dry I think you get more for your money. Plus all of ours like the dry too. There are times they will eat dry even when there is wet food sitting there. However we also know that they all drink good amounts of water. If I had a cat that drank little water I would avoid dry as much as possible.

I think there is some kind of Fancy Feast dry but it is not that good. One of our dry foods is Pro Plan Selects, which is Purina's "gourmet" dry (Purina also makes Fancy Feast in case this was not clear). The Purina "gourmet" canned is also Pro Plan Selects. There are only about 5 different flavors, and our cats like some OK but will not eat it long term. I am quite sure it does not have any by-products. Costs about 50% more than Fancy Feast "Elegant Medleys" in part because it is available only at Petco here rather than Walmart.

You can even find a few cheap things that are OK if you read labels. The 9 Lives "Tuna Select" is basically just tuna and water, and you get four 5.5oz cans for $1.30 or something like that.