# ? EVO Red Meat and Lg Breed Puppies



## HORSEandHOUND (Nov 5, 2009)

Bag says formulated for all life stages... a different forum had a member comment you shouldn't feed it to large breed puppies...
My pup went on strike for a few weeks and would only eat veggies (yes, i know, weird), and FINALLY found a food he'll actually eat, and that's EVO red meat. We even tried home cooking and raw (neither are options i could sustain long term anyhow)
He's 8 months, 55lbs due to mature at 75lbs. 
I ran the cal/phos ratio and it seems to be within .02% of other large breed formulas.

Can someone please enlighten me on the truth here?


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Evo should be fine for your puppy!


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

HORSEandHOUND said:


> Can someone please enlighten me on the truth here?


It's high protein and some people mistakenly think that feeding high protein food will cause a puppy to have abnormal growth and cause bones, joints and muscles to be deformed. I think those problems are genetic and protein levels have no effect on them.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

EVO should be just fine. A raw diet has been fine for our Dane puppy and she is almost 9 months old now.

Just make sure you don't feed to much of it. Its a very rich food and can cause dogs to gain weight like crazy. Remember...you should be able to see the last rib or 2 and feel the rest. If you see back or hip bones he is too thin.

Side note: You mentioned that your dog went "on strike?" What does this mean? Did he refuse to eat his food? If so, you should not give into him. When you do, he controls you which is how a picky eater is created. Next time he "refuses" to eat, don't give into it. Stick with the food that he initially refused (ie...veggies for a few weeks is NOT a good thing for a carnivore). Give him the option to eat it at regular meal times. If he doesn't eat his food within 15 minutes, take it up and give it back to him the next time you feed. This isn't starving your dog. He is CHOOSING not to eat. You provided him with food, and he chose not to eat it. Offer it again and again until he eats it. No dog will starve themselves to death. It might take a few days if you have a stubborn dog, but don't worry...dogs are very closely related to wolves who often go a week without food.

If you are thinking that "He's not eating it cuz he doesn't like it" again you are the boss and decide what he eats. You can apply the same techniques of parenting human children to feeding dogs. If a kid refused to eat all veggies...would you let them and give them cake instead, just because they don't like veggies? Hopefully not. Same goes for dogs. If they seem to not like their food, and you know its a HEALTHY thing to give...oh well for them. Since you are the boss and decide what is best, you had better give them the most nutritious thing you can find/afford/feed. You can "treat" them to give them variety and such in their diet...since a kibble diet can be a bit monotonous.

Sorry for the rant :biggrin:


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## HORSEandHOUND (Nov 5, 2009)

No worries Natalie, we are of the same schooling there 
He was being given raw veggies for teething (sorry refuse to feed rawhide, pleh) along with his meals, and he stopped eating his meals. I'd leave it out for 10-15 minutes and after that, tough! After 5 days of no eating his kibble even after stopping his veggie snacks, i decided that i'd see if a different protein source would be better. He was on chicken, and i know this sounds crazy and a little stupid but my gut kept telling me to feed him red meat proteins. so i found several grain free, and low grain red meat based diets, set the samples out onto plates and let him pick. 
I've even tried tricking him, but he wants EVO. Based on what I know (far from expert) it seems to be a decent food. He's my baby, so i just wanted to make sure that my limited education had not lead me astray


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Innova EVO is pretty much the best diet you can give as far as a kibble goes!


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Yep! Your pup chose very well for himself!


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## PhillyAnt (Oct 30, 2009)

If I wasn't feeding my pup Orijen then EVO would be my next choice. And do not worry about the protein. Its all a myth.


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## Joanne (Nov 6, 2009)

We just switched off, by extended transition, from the 42% EVO protein (Chicken) to ACANA wild prairie, also chicken plus which is 33% protein and are now adding raw beef to that, feeding twice per day at 1% body weight each feeding. We add salmon oil in the first feeding, along with yogurt. We made the switch because one of our corgis had poop on her behind, and now we don't have that problem...so far. Their stools are in good shape and we estimate they do #2 once a day only. We've gone from Canidae, until they changed formulas, then to Taste of The Wild until we found ethoxyquin in it, another good one (can't recall it) then to EVO and now to ACANA. That's where we are and the health of the dogs seems good, and they are middle-aged dogs.


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