Switched to INNOVA EVO

I have limited experience with EVO. All three dogs I've seen eat it (chihuahua, basset, GSD) have ended up with diarrhea, even after a slow introduction. I know there are people on the forum who do feed it and have great success with it.

Evo is great stuff! [sm=biggrin.gif] It's the dry food of choice in my household.

My brother's dog used to be rather pudgy and got even more overweight on a diet food. Since the switch to Evo and later Solid Gold's Barking at the Moon, she lost a lot of the weight over a few months, and lost another 3 lbs after she was spayed. I would say she's lost an average of 1 lb a month since she started on a high protein/low carb diet.

I should mention that she's a small breed and has now shed off most, if not all the fat. Total weight loss was approx. 7.5 lbs.

David,
EVO is high in kcals, so remember, don't feed as much as other foods. This can sometimes be hard for labs (being the food-whores they are) and by adding green beans or carrots or giving them as treats can help to "fill" (I use that term lightly, lol) them up. It can be hard getting a dog adjust to less quantity of food to start of with when they are use to getting 3, 4, or even 5 cups of another food.
 
I use EVO in my rotation along with EP Holistic Fish for my Chi's. My little female (Happy) is a bit pudgy and I have noticed that she has lost a bit of weight since starting back on EVO and both of them don't have any gland problems when on it.
The one thing I don't like about it is, their coat is not as "bright" and "shiney" as it is on EP Fish and they get a bit of flaking just after a bath.
 
All of my dogs (13 in all, including the beagles) do get some raw, canned, and homecooked, but it's not a significant part of their diet.
 
There are good points and not-so-good points with every food and I am sure if you asked anyone on here they would agree. I am glad that your dog "loves" the EVO and you are to be commended for wanting to find what works best for YOUR dog.
 

I have very good luck with it combined with raw or fresh foods.  It's a good versatile food you can use in many different ways.

There's several other foods out there now formulated on the same principle.  On a formula this specialized, I'd rotate every so often (making sure you switch gradually) to offer variety and balance his diet over time.

Thanks for the info. I'm curious as to how much I should feed my boy. I was feeding him 3 cups of Nutro's Lg. Breed Weight Mgt. and now I'm sorta giving him the same amount, but a tad less. He gets 3 measured cups of the Innova cause it's mixed with the left-over Nutro in a bucket.  He gets 1 cup in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the eve. Is this too much? My Lab is the English type with the big'ol square head and stocky frame. He's about 109 lbs right now.  I'd say he is about 10lbs overweight, if that.  He's a big boned boy lol..

I feed my girl EVO, with great success. She is ripped (she's very fit n trim), has a very shiny coat and is she is maintaining a good weight, which can be hard with her, because she is so small. On Nutro, she used to have a not-so-shiny coat and it was kind of dandruffy. But not anymore. I also like that the kibbles are small, easy for her to chew, since she only weighs approximately 10 pounds. I just love Innova EVO. I have no experience with big dogs, so I can't help you how much you should feed. Sorry. I can tell you, however, I feed my girl 1/2 a cup per day. (Except for every second day in the evening, when she gets a bit of raw.) Good lick with your boy!

Is he a yellow lab? I ask because they are generally bigger and heavier than black or chocolate labs. I've seen some yellow labs that are big enough to be farmstead exemptions.

David,
 
I have a formula that figures required kcals per dog (weight, BMR, activity, & growth) but my scientific calculator is NOT working right now.
Fortunately, Natura has a feeding wizard which is pretty close to accurate, but does not take into consideration a dogs activity level or growth factor.
Here is the recommended amounts for a 109lb dog. [linkhttp://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=profile-wiz-results&animal=Dog&name=&weight=109&metric=0&dry=1246&can=0&ratio=0&treats=&biscuits=0&go.x=16&go.y=14]http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=profile-wiz-results&animal=Dog&name=&weight=109&metric=0&dry=1246&can=0&ratio=0&treats=&biscuits=0&go.x=16&go.y=14[/link]
I hope it shows up, lol. Anyway, I would say that 3 cups would be adequate to start with, then I would ease off down to 2 1/2 after he gets adjust to a lesser amount. This should also help him lose a bit of weight, SLOWLY.
 
Hope this helps and if you want the formula to figure kcal requirements, I would be glad to send it to you.

Yep!!  Parker is a big'ol strapping yellow Lab! 

I knew a guy with a nearly horse-sized yellow that he hunts with and that boy was over 100 pounds and all of it completely muscle. Of course, the dog gets the workout necessary for hunting. It's like training for retrieval competition. He uses electronic leash because at 100 yards the dog may not hear his recall. But he had trained the dog with it, so it was effective.
 
Anyway, good luck to you as it sounds like your dog is not too far off of his weight range.

David, I would almost lay you money that you'll want to decrease his ration a bit.  My powerhouse BCs with the furnace metabolisms, who generally do best on twice to three times the recommended feeding rates, never got more than the equivalent of two cups.

at 100 yards the dog may not hear his recall.

Lol.  I'm pretty certain dogs can hear better than that.  Working BCs routinely work at twice to ten times that distance.    Dogs only working at 100 yards are not even ready to trial yet.  And I'm pretty sure upland bird retrieval dogs work in that same range too - or used to anyway.  You use a whistle to increase the audibility of your commands, but my oldest dog doesn't use whistles and hears my vocal commands just fine at 300 yards or so.

Here's my Jen's mom (dogslyfe's June on this forum) in her first BC trial: - 125 yard gather - June is the dog to the left of the girl in white.  Laura in blue in the foreground is the one working June.



Here's June and  my  Ann's  half sister.  This obstacle is performed at half the distance of the gather - in this case, the top level class, that is 200 yards from the handler.



 Here's a little idea of the size of the field - the handler would be standing in the same place as Laura above, so compare where that house is to the picture with June:



And another perspective - that's the same obstacle at the top - the post where the handler stands for the gate obstacle would be off to the left of this picture (this exercise calls for the handler and dog to sort sheep in a 70 yard wide circle delineated only by marks on the ground - neither dog nor handler may touch the sheep):

Ron2...Glad to know theres a yellow horse retriever bigger than mine..lol , I've been trying to post his picture here but Im not too computer savy. I have my pics on Kodaks easyshare and I can't seem to get them smaller than needed. How do you get your pics smaller than what..290x290 or something like that..75k? I dont know..Anyway..Im going to try and edit my pics again..wish me luck. If Parkers head wasn't the size of a small horse I could get it posted...lol..David

you can resize pictures with a free/share ware program called irfanview. that is what i use to resize picts. it is pretty straight forward and i can step you through it if need be. []

Thank you cycle - that's what I was tryng to remember earlier.

Here's a closeup of David's gorgeous boy:



And full view:



Here's one that should work as an avatar for you - or of course you can use whatever you want, but this will help you see what size you'll need it to be: