Please post your experiences with Innova here.  Thank you.

Moved to Feline EVO Board Topic

http://itchmoforums.com/index.php?topic=1190.msg16505#msg16505

Was feeding Innova Adult (green bag) until I noticed black and white chunks in the kibble.  Also found blue rubber sticking out of one piece of kibble and what looked like fishing line sticking out of another.  Sent samples to Natura and to Expertox.  No toxins found, but Expertox said the chunks appeared to be inorganic, some type of synthetic material.  Natura said the black chunks were natural vitamin premix and the white chunks were bone or brown rice.  They think the fishing line type material was connective tissue from chicken or turkey and the blue rubber was packaging material from a raw ingredient that inadvertently made its way into the product.  (I did not send the kibble with rubber and fishing line type material to Natura - it went to the independent lab instead - so they made those assumptions based on photos only.)

Innova Adult Green Bag
Pennsylvania
Began using 4 weeks ago out of necessity.  Have been feeding homemade dog food since March 2007 due to recalls.  Unfortunately due to time constraints it has become necessary to use commercially prepared.
3 shih tzu
Dogs like the taste.  Have had no issues with them not wanting to eat the food.  Initially, very loose stools even though I transitioned very slowly.  1 dog experienced very bad gas initially.  It took 2 1/2 weeks for the stools to firm up.  All is well now.  No ill effects.  Nothing irregular noted in the kibble.
Kibble is nice sized for small mouths, even though it isnt marketed as a mini bite.  Company very responsibe to both email and telephone inquiries.  No difference in skin condition, coat, energy level.  Will update again after they have been on longer.

I've fed Innova Evo, and prior to that Innova, for years. This is one of the highest quality dog foods to be found anywhere. My dog, who is in shiny full coat, loves it (dogs have different eating styles though, and it is not important that they devour the food instantly. Some dogs are grazers and some have been trained to hold out for table leftovers).

In any case, I totally trust this company. I did a lot of research before deciding to feed Natura foods. They are committed to quality and they are ethical. I've been very happy with them for 10 years now!!

Ingrid

I had been feeding our husky mix Innova (regular, green bag) since he was a pup, he's 11 now and has always been in excellent health, great energy, beautiful coat, no illnesses.

Last week, though, he suddenly refused to eat any of it. We thought he was just picky from stress, we were traveling, so we tried all kinds of things mixed in- cooked chicken, grated cheese, yogurt, rice, etc. He refused to eat any from two different bags, he went for 3 days without eating anything. We thought he had lost his appetite entirely and were very worried!

Then I remembered that on many of the forums, people said dogs often had refused to eat food that later turned out to be bad. All the same week he had some digestive problems, diarrhea and drinking lots of water, but he has always had a sensitive stomach, and again we thought it was the traveling stress. But when he stopped eating a light went off in my head. So, I cooked him some rice with chicken & broccoli, and he ate about 3 cups of it in under a minute! The rest of our trip we fed him only that, no Innova, and the diarrhea stopped the first day of the switch, and he went back to normal water intake.

Now, I'm really frustrated beacuse I obsessively watched everything I could during the recalls, and thought Innova was ok. He has done so well on it all these years, but I'm not going to feed him any more. It's upsetting, since this is only one instance, and I hate to switch from a food that was so good for him without "official laboratory proof" type info, but his symptoms do match the ones discussed on the www.petfoodrecallfacts.com site, and they cleared up instantly when he finally got us to pay attention by starving himself.

He seems to be fine now, he's a strong fellow, and I'm going to have to find new food, but I wanted to be sure to share this since other folks' posts on this forum were so helpful to me in all my research during the big recall. Any food suggestions would be appreciated, also!

-leavesofjoy