EVO Dry Cat & Kitten Food - Good,Bad or Ugly???

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Brenda and Morris

Brenda and Morris

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I have started feeding Morris the EVO dry cat & kitten food and have received some comments that, oh you have to get them off the dry food. Well, yeah, I know that but this food has supposedly less than 7% carbs so I am wondering why I and others are being told to get off it. I am using it only for snacks, BTW, but less than 7% is pretty low so just wondering.
 
Brenda,

It's more than the carb issue. It's the fact that it is dry food. Dry food contains ingredients that aren't good for cats, plus it totally dehydrates and causes all kinds of problems.

The best explanation for this is Dr. Lisa's website:

http://www.catinfo.org/

Check it out and read it for yourself, then you will understand why wet food is pushed here.
 
Also I believe I've read that the 7% isn't actually true, the real carb # is higher. I'll see if I can dig up a link for that...

Ultimately I think it comes down to what works for your cat, and what BG #s you get. My cat was on dry food (M/D & DM - the Evo made him sick so I never got to test how that would work for him & his BGs) for ages even once I got here, simply because he wouldn't touch wet food. I found his diabetes close to impossible though to regulate, and finally got him converted over to wet and it's been tons easier since then.

If you find your kitty is easy to regulate even with dry in the picture, I wouldn't worry about it too much (I'm nowhere close to a food expert, that is just my personal opinion). But if you find you can't get the diabetes under control, or decide you want to see how he does without dry in the mix, then you might want to try 100% canned and see if you see improvement in his BGs. You can always do some testing both ways (keeping in mind that the dry food can take a couple days to fully clear their system in terms of BG #s, and also keeping in mind you may need to reduce the insulin dose & watch out for unexpected lows), and see if it affects his #s much.
 
I started my Maxwell on EVO dry cat and kitten when he was first DX. It was his only food because he was a dry food cat. I thought we had found the perfect win-win food.

He was on it about 3 months and not getting regulated (PZI about 3.5U BID) and the food was pricey and he was gaining weight (it's highly caloric).

I tried to wean him over to wet food, but it just wasn't happening. One day I got tired of the fight, and I took all of his dry away.

The next day his numbers plunged 100 points. It was a race dropping his dosage to keep up with his sputtering pancreas. We played alot of games with serial feeding. Max was OTJ about 6 weeks later. It probably could have been 4 weeks, but I kept messing with the shots.

The moral of Max's story. EVO is probably the best dry you can do, but no dry is better.
 
Oops, I guess I didn't make it too clear that I TOTALLY agree that the wet food is the way to go....I feed raw whenever I can as a matter of fact in addition to wet. My question was because Morris has stopped eating and this was just one thing that he will sometimes nibble on but everyone kept saying get off the dry...he's not on dry, I give him maybe 10 pieces a day as a snack. Plus if it's high calorie, he needs that right now...he's gone from a healthy 17 lbs. to a skinny 14 lbs. in less than a month....I just need him to eat!!
 
I knew you were referring to it as a treat. That why I made it clear that Max was on it full time. I can't say what kind of effect a few nibbles a day might have.
 
(((((Brenda))))) That is tough if he isn't eating. Any food is better than no food!!!!! If he likes the Evo and won't eat other stuff, I'd let him at it! Hope he is feeling better soon. I don't have any tips for when they won't eat, just sympathy. :)
 
I bought the EVO Dry Cat & Kitten too.
My cat has also not been eating.
The doctor thought she was diabetic, so had me start her on insulin.
One shot and she all of a sudden she totally stopped eating. (I discontinued the insulin after the one shot and took her back to the vet, she is not diabetic, but they do not know what is wrong)
At the vets she was tube fed for 2 days.
I have been syringe feeding her 2x a day a wet food mixture of Fancy Feast and water.
When she does eat, she will eat maybe 5 pieces of dry a couple of times a day.
Thats not enough food.
Yesterday she ate more on her own, today she did not.

The EVO Dry Cat and Kitten is grain free and has good ingredients, just not enough water like the canned.
Dr. Lisa says cats do not get enough water when they drink water and eat just dry food.
My cats have always drank alot of water, so I do not really understand that. I use the clumpible litter and believe me, they seemed like they got plenty of water each day. lol

The protein in EVO is derived from premium quality meats that are highly digestible, highly palatable and provide maximum nutrient absorption. Fresh meats provide vital nutrients like amino acids (such as lysine and taurine), essential minerals, and other key building blocks that encourage strong bones and muscles.
EVO Turkey & Chicken Formula Dry Cat Food is grain free. By removing ALL grain from the diet, EVO minimizes starch or carbohydrate intake while maximizing the concentration of protein. In fact, EVO provides high-quality protein at a level that is among the highest available anywhere. EVO cat and kitten foods are formulated with the highest quality meats, and whole fruit and vegetables are added to provide natural vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals.
 
Hello,
I've had our kitty Mika diet controlled for some months with absolutely NO dry food, but now she starting back on insulin because the only thing she'd eat is EVO dry. Before she was regulated and OTJ, I was very resistant to taking away all the dry food because she was under weight (6.5 lbs) but I finally bit the bullet and threw it away. It is more of a pain to feed wet food, but literally in about a month's time she was off her Lantus. She recently had a bizarre episode where the specialists thought she had either a seizure or brain tumor and after dealing with her cushings and skin falling off, we didn't have the finances to do a MRI and decided to try antibiotics as a last chance and she bounced back like nothing! Little trooper! But, at this point she would not eat a bit of wet food so we opted to put her back on EVO dry. Now her BG readings are up near 300, so she's going back on Lantus. I still get her to eat a little bit of FF Appetizers but she won't sustain herself on that. I am hoping to get her off dry again, but in the mean time this is what we have to do.

If your goal is getting your cat off insulin, then you'd be best to get rid of all dry. But also, you have to do what fits your life and your cat's life. For us, it was really hard to get people to watch Mika and train them to give the shots. When she was OTJ then they just had to feed her--much easier!

Good luck to you!
 
Brenda,

Given that you have a cat not wanting to eat very well, don't worry about it. Plus as a little snack of a few pieces, I don't think it's that big of a deal... but again depending on how his glucose runs. Even a small amount of a higher carb food can send a cat through the roof, but a few pieces of lower carb may not. (You're the one doing the testing, so you're the only one who can know.) I don't know about the carb number cause pretty much any info I've gotten from Innova doesn't "add up." So I never trust their numbers.

But when a cat isn't eating, the priority starts becoming to just get food in them. I think the fact that he's having issues eating kind of got bypassed along the way here. You have to go with the best food you can go with, based on budget considerations, what the cat will eat, and other circumstances. In a situation where a cat isn't eating, that "what the cat will eat" tends to become the higher priority. When people say "get off the dry," they're meaning under normal circumstance -- or should be meaning that. If you have different circumstances, sometimes different rules have to apply. I'm a big food fanatic, but I still recognize when different circumstances exist.

No food, no matter how great, will help if he's not eating it.
 
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