Innova Cat Food Feeding?

By feeding a super premium mixed with a corn based food, you end up with a mediocre product at a higher price. You might try moving up to Purina One whose first ingredient is chicken (indoor's is ground corn, check the label). That's what worked for me, balancing the cost against the quality, and a variety of cats have done very well on it. And, the bigger bag I can buy at a time, the lower the unit cost.

I don't mean to discourage Innova, but if you take fresh squeezed orange juice and mix it with kool aid, what kind of nutrition do you get, really?

The point of feeding a quality food, like innova, is that you feed LESS....

If you are open feeding, don't do that. feed kitty 2x/day, do not leave food out. And don't feed Purina... stick with innova only. Combining the foods undoes the good of feeding innova.

If you need a lower priced but decent food, try felidae or chicken soup for the cat lover's soul. both are good. so is newmans, though less so than innova.

Better yet, feed canned.... that is the best option and for this i would feed Wellness Chicken and Rice. Buy the tall cans. If you go to the Old Mother Hubbard site you can find it there by putting in the zip code. This is VERY good food.

Innova contains NO grain and lots of protein - 50%.

Purina contains mostly grain and much less protein - probably around 30%.

The Innova isn't what's causing your cat weight gain - it's the Purina. Which Innova are you using? My cats eat the Innova Evo and we pay $14.99 for a 6.6 lb bag. Since it's a much more nutrient-dense food, cats eat a lot less of it to be full. So it really doesn't cost that much more than the cheaper foods. It also doesn't have the filler than the cheap foods have which means less poop - less litter box changes, which in turn, less money. Plus the healthier your cat, the less vet bills you'll end up having. So isn't the extra cost worth it?

Are you feeding your cat ONLY dry food? An only dry food diet is really bad for cats even if you're feeding them something as good as Innova. http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=libra...

Also how often are you feeding your cat? Are you "free feeding" - leaving the food out all day long? Cats should be fed twice a day. If food's left out all day they'll eat out of boredom - just like humans do. Here's some great info about helping your cat lose weight - http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=libra...

PS: kittyluv - if your vet really recommended Naturals by Purina it's time to switch vets!!!

It actually would be cheaper for you to buy the canned version of Innova. Canned Innova is lower in calories per ounce then the dry version. My local feed store sells canned Innova for about $1.20 for the 13.2 ounce can. Each cat will have different caloric needs, but, mine only ate about half of one a day.

That would be a lot cheaper, and actually better then what you are doing now.

Adding any purina at all pretty much cancels out what you're trying to do with the Innova, namely, avoiding all that corn and byproduct meal.

Here's a great article on obese cats..

http://catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

Hi

Innova evo is the highest quality dry out there but cats are still better off on canned foods w/ gravy. If you get rid of the dry, her weight will go to where it should be

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Fo...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process them. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. The optimum food to feed cats has no grains whatsoever, cats have no use for them and many have trouble processing them as well as the carbs. IBD is another disease that is rapidly becoming common amoung cats because of the inappropriate diets being fed.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php

Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics.html

http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food...

You cant disregard the fact food is grain free... that is a very important fact when giving your cat food. If Innova is grain free and has all the same nutrients as EVO, its just as good.. you have to read the ingredients.... there are other foods out there that are good... but they have to be grain free and have proper crude protein levels, low ash.... etc. I dont agree that dry food is not as good as wet if its evo or any comparable brand. Dry form Evo is the meat freeze dried and made into pellets, it has no more of a vegetable base than wet... wet is a preference to the animals because its smells better and they like the moist... but the dry is as good... I give the canned to one cat because I can hide his meds in it... otherwise I would do all dry and I am very particular about what I feed my animals.... I spend the extra because in the end its cheaper... less vet bills, less litter, less food...... period.

innova cat food feeding

Alright, lets start with how to feed your cat before saying what to feed your cat. Meal feeding is the best way to manage your cat's weight. Feed your cat two times a day. If you are giving your cat free choice (leaving a full bowl), then start by putting the bowl out and leaving it down for about 15-30 mins before taking it up. This is going to help your cat realize they must eat when you feed them.

Now, by feeding a good quality food, you will feed your animal less and your cat should be using the litter box less because more of that food is going to be absorbed by your cat's body. I would suggest Science Diet. Now, I don't know price comparison where you are, but Purina Pro Plan and Purina One are good foods, so are Nutro and Iams. Dry food is best for a regular food. By feeding dry food as opposed to canned, chewing the kibble will help aid in the cleaning of the teeth. Canned food is more likely to adhere to the teeth and cause a build up of plaque over time, meaning your cat will need a dental - a tooth cleaning under anesthesia - sooner which is costly. Select food for its need. If you want to loose weight or maintain a weight, use a "light" food.

On the back of the bag, there should be a chart on how much to feed your cat a day. Start at the lower end of the suggestion, split it in half and feed twice a day. Since your cat is only mildly active, your cat does not burn the calories, so feeding it less is fine. Just don't starve your feline friend. If your cat is still gaining weight, cut down on the food more. If your cat gets too skinny, feed more. This is your cat, you have to adjust the amount of food with its individual lifestyle, but the bag's directions will always help.

Important tip, when changing your cat's food, slowly introduce the new food by mixing with its regular diet. Do this over a week and increase the new food, remove the old food. This will decrease the chance of diarrhea.

I do not know much about Innova cat food, but I would not recommend Purina Indoor. I know cost is an issue, but by feeding a higher quality food, even a higher quality Purina food, you can decrease the chance of spending money later on due to health issues because of the food you are feeding now. Think of a high quality (subsequently higher priced) food as an investment in your cat's health. Just like not eating too much fast food is for us.

It's probably less expensive to feed canned food (or raw) and it is much better for your cat. They get more of the nutrition that they need, as a carnivore, and less carbohydrates to make them fat. Cats have no use for grains, fruits or vegetables, so if you buy a food like Fancy Feast that is all meat, you don't waste money (or calories) on things the cat doesn't need. Avoid the gravy kinds, the gravy contains soy and again will add calories your cat doesn't need.

Cut out the dry food. Its full of carbs that will make her fat. See the link below for more reading on why wet food is better than dry.