What caught my eye about it is that it's extremely low in carbs.

It's probably the best dry food on the market right now--very, very high in protein, no grains and all that. So if you have to feed kibble for some reason and you have loads of dosh, I definitely recommend Innova Evo.

Stephanie, sorry to hear Evo didn't work out. Your cat might very well be allergic to chicken or fish, which are two of the most common cat allergens, and ubiquitous cat food ingredients. Flavorings can also be an allergen, and Evo contains that as well.

Lauren: Whoa, slow down there slappy.

If a person for WHATEVER reason chooses to feed commercial food or needs to supplement the food with dry, then Innova Evo is one of the best choices.

Does it mean it can compare to a fresh, balanced raw diet?

No. Not even close, in my opinion.

"Evo has no GRAINS, not no CARBS--it just substitutes potatoes for oatmeal or rice hulls or whatever. Which means, for a carnivore, it still has the same kitty-crack effect that all grain based pet foods have--high blood sugar, addiction, hyperactivity, diabetes, etc.... "

First of all: quantity and type of carbohydrates make a big difference. And no food--not even raw, whole prey--is carb-free. If you want to look at some numbers for whole prey, check this link out: www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/...2May29.pdf

If you do the math, whole prey can range from 5-15% carbs by dry weight, though the numbers aren't strictly accurate because carb analysis is generally done by difference, i.e. the people crunching the numbers calculate how much protein, fat and ash the food has first. To find out the carb content, you have to assume that it's what's left over. The amount of carbs is also sometimes referred to as NFE, nitrogen-free extract.

But then I'm pretty sure you don't know what I mean by dry weight, as evidenced by this paragraph below:

"What REALLY frightens me about Evo is the whole 50% protein thing--my animals are on a prey model raw diet (no veggies, no carbs) and their average protein intake is around 25-35%!!!! In other words Evo has TWICE as much protein as a diet made ONLY from meat products!"

Have you learned how to differentiate between dry matter analysis vs as-fed analysis? The reason why Evo seems to be so high in protein is because its protein content is calculated by weight. Water oftentimes makes up a significant portion of the food's weight. In the case of kibble, 90% of its water is gone; if you extract 90% of the water from a fresh raw diet, it'd be even higher in protein. Raw meat-based diets approximate whole prey in their protein content, i.e. about 60-70% protein on a dry-matter (DM) basis. This is why if you want to compare apples with apples instead of apples with oranges, you go with dry matter calculations, whereby you subtract the water content FIRST before calculating the nutrients.

For a more detailed explanation of this as well as a tutorial on how to calculate food on a DM basis, go here: catfoodguide.com/howtoread...#drymatter

IAMS kibble and the like are actually on the low side when it comes to protein. It's why I always recommend canned food or home-made over kibble. Canned food and home-made are almost always higher in protein on a dry-matter basis (which is what counts).

"The protein content of most dry and wet foods is the same, in the twenties or thirties, and it is like that for a reason. While more of a serious concern for dogs, too much protein causes overrapid growth and skin problems."

The hell kind of canned food are you looking at? The highest canned food protein content I've seen is 12% for Petguard's Chicken and Wheat Germ.

And I call bullshit on this "too much protein causes growth and skin problems" factlet. Got any citations there? Too much phosphorus that hasn't been balanced with calcium can cause growth issues, mostly because it impacts bone development, but phosphorus isn't protein.

"But the idea that someone DOES know, has done the reading, realizes how innappropriate commercial food is for a carnivore and how there is a desperate need to change what they feed, and then is suckered in by innova's marketing ploys to merely changing the brand name of their poison, offends the hell out of me."

And it offends the hell out of me that you'd come here and shoot your mouth off about Evo's protein content without even knowing the difference between as-fed analysis and dry-matter analysis.

And it offends me that you're making HUGE assumptions about what I endorse and what I don't.

Your fundamentalist attitude also offends me. You're not much better than those annoying-as-fuck Christians who stand on the corner telling me I'm going to burn in hell if I don't fall down and praise Jesus right this minute, only you're evangelizing about pet food.

Look, I'm in your corner. I believe that balanced, home-made raw diets are the best option too. I make my own cat food. I have a backup source of canned food for emergencies, or for those days when I'm a fucktard and I forget to defrost a meal, but canned food makes up maybe 5% of their total diet. They get NO kibble. None.

But your shoutiness? Annoying as hell. People have various reasons to feed what they do, and my goal is to help people take the best care of their cats with the time and resources they have. My goal is not to make them feel bad for the choices they make or make it seem as if Fluffeh is going to keel over dead simply because she's eating Wellness kibble.