Innova Evo (Turkey & Chicken)
Rating: 
| Price: $$$$ | Website
Innova Evo
*** Please note, since Procter & Gamble took over this brand there have been a number of recalls due to traces of salmonella being found in a number of products. This includes California Naturals, Innova, EVO, Karma and Healthwise formulas ***
The EVO line of foods from Innova differs from the regular Innova foods in that it is grain-free and very high in protein. They advertise themselves as the “ancestral diet”, which is to say that the food is the way cats ate before humans started giving them crap like corn and soy as cheap fillers in their food.
Cats love the stuff, and it’s easy to see why. The first 4 ingredients are named meat products, and so is the 8th. You have potatoes for carbs and egg as yet another protein source. In fact, the protein percentage in this food stands at 50%, which is among the very highest you’ll find anywhere.
Like any high-quality food, veggies and fruits like cranberries, tomatoes and apples are thrown in as well. It’s these types of ingredients which often differentiate between bargain food and good food.
Also notice the herring oil, which like any fish oil, is an excellent fatty acid and source of Omega fatty acids. Taurine is present, as any good cat food needs to have taurine to prevent blindness. Oh, and cottage cheese. This is the only food I’ve seen with that in the ingredient list. Nice!
It’s expensive, but this is one product I do think is worth the price tag.
Where to buy?
What’s good about this food….
Loaded with quality meats, no grains, eggs, fruits and vegetables, herring oil included.
….and what’s not so good.
The only thing would be the price.
Ingredients:
Turkey, chicken meal, chicken, herring meal, chicken fat, potatoes, egg, turkey meal, natural flavors, vitamins, apples, potassium chloride, carrots, cranberries, alfalfa sprouts, minerals, tomatoes, herring oil, cottage cheese, ascorbic acid, dried chicory root extract, direct-fed microbials, vitamin E supplement, taurine, DL methionine, lecithin, rosemary extract.
My cats were raised on this food. When I first heard about it there was a recall because imported cat food had been accidentally irradiated (thankfully not mine) but all of the brand was recalled. Then, uncle Sal was introduced and someones cat was ill. Shame on your inspection techniques.I purchased Both the dry and canned kitten cat chicken rice flavor and my cats are 11-11-11-2 years old and it is unavailable now by any of the brands I search. EVO chicken rice kitten and cat had them balanced and healthy weight and they loved it. Now, they can’t have it. Sal never hit here or I would have been really pissed as what was recalled wasn’t the lot# of what they consumed and the cost had gone up significantly. Step up your act!!! Now that I am forced to experiment I am led toward Costco Maintenance diet to find chicken rice grain free formula and although is 1/4 the price I would prefer this because it is easy to save the mfg information off the bags and have not had a recall notification though seriously, their poo was better formed with EVO. Now that I have looked around, it is over priced, low quality inspections for contaminants
etc.
My cat has been having so many problems with his food in the past year. I have gone grain free… gluten free… high protein. He has lived on dry food all his life. In the past 3 months he is now on wet food and doing fine. The problem is… he seems to be hungry all the time. I am looking for a dry food to leave out at night that he will be able to digest without getting sick. I have 4 cats so it is very expensive to be feeding them soft foods twice a day. Should I be concerned about this brand of dry food?
Hi Athena, some foods work better for different cats. Innova has had their issues, so if you have any concerns then try another food. Here’s our best rated cat food list – https://www.petfoodratings.org/best-dry-cat-food/
Is evo advertised as a diabetic-friendly formula? I’m not aware if it is. I switched my cat to Evo from a Fromm and Merrick mix about a year and a half ago. In addition to the Evo kibble she gets Canidae, Pride, Evo, Nature’s Variety Instinct and Merrick canned foods 4-6 times a week. I’ll be the first one to share what a change I’ve seen. Her coat feels incredible. My friends are always so surprised by how soft her fur is. She no longer gets eye gunk and she used to have a lot of accidents with runny poop getting stuck to her fur. Welp, I trim butt hair no longer. She’s four, which I know is still relatively young but she’s as playful and rambunctious as she was as a kitten. Maybe it’s coincidental but I attribute this to the dietary changes she’s had. I love Evo. Keep in mind, my cat currently has no health issues that I have to consider. *knocks on wood*
The natura evo web site claims this food is 8% carbs, which if true would make it ideal for a diabetic cat. I had been looking for a replacement for Wysong Epigen 90 for my cats (including a cat who needs low carb or his blood sugars go crazy). Wysong Epigen 90 had a recent reformulation that nearly killed one of my 3 cats with diarrhea and vomiting and all 3 had done well with the diabetic one sporting normal and low sugars on the old formulation (off insulin). Well, the good news is they loved the food and chowed down on it avidly. But then in a few days, I noticed the water bowls were emptying. I checked the blood sugar on my diabetic one and it was high 300’s. I treated with insulin and trashed the food. In my opinion, tapioca starch as 3rd or 4th ingredient and blood sugars like this after normal sugars off insulin on another food are totally inconsistent with an 8% carb level. Natura claims there’s only “a light dusting to keep the granules together”. I think they are lying. My cat only sports sugars like this with food having a carb content twice this or more. If you are even thinking of feeding this to a diabetic cat, watch the water bowls, have a glucometer with test strips ready to go and insulin in the fridge. In my opinion, this reformulated innova evo is totally unsuitable for a diabetic or even pre-diabetic cat.
Just so everyone knows cats are carnivores. What does a cat eat in the wild? Mice? Birds? Other small animals? That would be a yes. Do you see cats eating rice, potatoes, cranberries and carrots in the wild? No. Cats are not naturally supposed to eat these things. Many people see the “well balanced ingredient” pictures or lists and think oh hey that looks good for a human so it must be good for my fuzzy friend as well. Well guess what, you are 110% wrong. ANY! And I mean ANY wet cat food is a million times better than ANY dry food. Dry food has little to no water constant which if you think about it mice, birds, and other animals have a high water body content. Cats don’t naturally drink as much water as they need to because in the wild they get most of their water from their food. Dry cat food has a high chance of cause very very painful and pricey unitary tract infections and even stones. Let’s see how much it would hurt if you had a majorly inflamed and infected urethra while trying to pee a marble. That’s what dry cat food can do to you fluffy family member. Let’s not out them through and and stop being selfish, spend a little more money and buy them some wet food. Your cat will be healthier and live longer. Thank you for reading and listening. Let’s try to bring this into the daylight and spread the word to keep cats everywhere happier and healthier and with their loving families a few years longer!
Hi Yuki, thanks for your comment.
Cats are carnivores, like you say, but consider the mice, birds, and other animals they would eat in the wild would’ve lived off a diet of berries and vegetables. Yes, a cat’s diet should be meat based, but these other ingredients do have nutritional merit.
Your point about wet food having a much higher water content is very valid, and a risk with dry food. It’s important for a cat to have water readily available, from a bowl, or some people add water to dry food. Not everyone can afford to feed their pets a wet diet. My first cat lived to 21 years old, and that was on Science Diet!
Do you know if this is still considered the lowest carb dry cat food on the market?
Hi Lex, there’s a number of low carb foods on the market, even “no-carb” foods like Young Again. I haven’t reviewed it but it’s pretty good by the looks of it – https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/
I used Young Again Zero Carb for a while when I had a diabetic cat, and it is very hard on the cats tummies. Lots of runny, smelly poo. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a diabetic cat… and even then don’t make it their only food. Use it as a supplement for a low carb canned food (Fancy Feast Classics are great). The Young Again 50/22 version is also lower carb than Evo. It is 5%. I believe the old Evo was 8%, and I think the new formula is a bit higher (the bag says 13% fruits and vegetables, so I’m assuming that means 13% carbs). After my diabetic cat passed away, I switched from Young Again Zero Carb to Young Again 50/22, and then to Evo due to the lower price and higher availability of Evo (Young Again can only be ordered from their web site). I’m considering switching back to Young Again after this formula change.
If you have a diabetic cat, Young Again Zero Carb is the ONLY dry food that you can give them without immediately spiking their blood sugar through the roof. Just be careful with it, and use it sparingly, or you will have a really smelly house. :-/
The ingredients changed recently and now tapioca starch is the number 4 ingredient instead of herring meal. Doesn’t sound healthy to me.
http://www.evopet.com/products/1441
See my post below. My cats love this food, but it doesn’t love the pre-diabetic one. I had big problems precisely because of this issue!
Is this a good food for transitioning kittens? I have looked into kitten foods for the mother, and wound up settling on this since I won’t need food for them for a couple of months. But if they can benefit from this food, I wouldn’t mind giving it to them. I’m very impressed with it.
Hi Heather,
The ingredients are good, so definitely no qualms about feeding it (if you’re ok with my slight warning at the top).
Why is EVO rated as one of the best cat food if there have been many recalls?
Thank you.
As far as ingredients analysis goes EVO is still a very solid food. What makes it difficult to review a cat/dog food is the integrity of the company, manufacturing standards, and quality of ingredients are all hard to gauge. For example, “chicken” in one food might be far superior to the quality of “chicken” in another food. A company may use quality ingredients but their manufacturing standards might be sub-par. Some companies use a number of different manufacturing facilities, some better standards than others. We can say a food is poor due to a number of recalls, but even that is uncertain. I know some pet food manufactures have made a number of voluntary recalls, and they’ve done this because they have high standards and wish to ensure their product is of a high quality – that to me means they’re a good company. In the case of Innova Evo, it seems apparent the quality of the food has diminished since P&G took over. All I can do is state that information, and leave it up to the readers to consider (or to research further). This is still a better food than many others readily available in your local store.
Cottage cheese as a good for cats food? dairy products are terrible for cats…. and what on earth are “natural ingredients” – approved wording for “crap we don’t want to tell you.”
this does not give me confidence in your ratings at all….
Hi Anne, I appreciate your point about “dairy products”. Cottage cheese is actually very low in lactose, and in any case the quantity in this food is minimal. It’s actually an excellent source of protein and calcium, and low in carbs and fats.
I love the formula for Innova Evo Cat Food – but the products were not great. The dry food was brittle and turned to dust and my cat wouldn’t eat it. He even pooped on the floor in protest! The wet food smells like it is rotting! (the chicken, the duck, and the beef.) Unfortunately I can’t stand to feed it any more!
This food has had so many recalls in the past 12 months, and made our cats so sick to the point where we lost one. When we contacted EVO, they took no responsibility.
Ever since Procter & Gamble took over this company, they destroyed the brand by cheapening the products, and literally gambling with our pets lives.
NEVER purchase procter and gamble pet foods if you love your pet. There are so many better brands out there such as Orijen, or wysong.