EVO discontinuing a number of their products

Before anyone panics, I think that the EVO Cat and Kitten is not one that has been discontinued; waiting on confirmation.

I was just at our local pet food store and there was a sign up that EVO is discontinuing a majority of their products so the store would not longer be carrying EVO. The store owner wasn't there so I couldn't ask her if she had a list of what was going and what was being kept.

I went onto EVOs website and sent them an email, they currently only have 4 cat products listed so my guess is they are the only ones that will continue to be sold, the rest discontinued.

Still on their website:
Dry:
EVO Herring & Salmon Formula Cat & Kitten Food (not diabetic friendly)
EVO Turkey & Chicken Formula Cat & Kitten Food (diabetic friendly)
Canned: (both diabetic friendly)
EVO 95% Chicken & Turkey Canned Cat Food
EVO 95% Duck Canned Cat Food

I don't see the canned EVO Venison or canned Turkey & Chicken (yes they had one that was the other way), or Beef listed on their website anymore. For dry, it looks like they might have done away with their weight management formula. If you feed any these, you might want to stock up.

All these companies doing away with the lines for our special needs cats makes me sad EVO Duck is the ONLY novel protein food that Sly has been willing to eat. I hope it has made the cut like it looks.

 

Wow, it kinda shook me up to see this! I sure hope they don't discontinue the rest of the stuff as I finally found wet food that my cats will eat, they HATE Friskies and with 6 of them I can hardly afford Fancy Feast. I mix some canned and some dry for my civies, but Goof will eat the Evo canned without vomitting, so if I can't get that anymore I don't know what the heck I'll do.

I can't find it locally, but I order it from Chewy.com. Free shipping over $49, and hats pretty easy to spend.

 

I just found out that The entire Innova line has been discontinued.

 

Bummer!

 

This worried me, so I made a quick phone call. A friendly Natura representative confirmed that some of their canned foods were discontinued... the Venison, Beef, and Salmon. The 95% Chicken & Turkey, the 95% Duck, and the dry Turkey & Chicken Formula are all safe and will still be made. My cat didn't like the Beef and the Venison was too expensive for me to try. I do hope they add a new flavor or two for some variety, rabbit would be my first idea.

It may be a good idea for anyone concerned where the Evo line is headed to express it to the company. Let them know how valued their product is and maybe help give them some ideas for new products that our cats will like.

This wasn't what I planned my first post to be, but it was necessary.

 

I was using the innova cat and kitten as it's very cheap when purchased in the 15oz cans. Hopefully the chicken and turkey will be available in the larger cans after they finish these changes. It seems like a good alternative. My one cat is a picky eater and has a hard time keeping on the weight with wet food, but my other is diabetic, so these foods are calorie dense which is good. It's a bummer for those needing novel proteins, tho.

 

You might want to look at Hound & Gatos canned, it is very much like the EVO and they have several novel proteins. My cats would not eat the 95% EVO but 6 out of 7 really like the Chicken Hound & Gatos. I just tried it last night as my cats seem to be on a mission of not wanting to eat anything consistently now, so figured they were getting bored with the same brand of food even though I was giving them different flavors. I also am trying Wild Callings to see how they like it. I switched them from Merrick Pates to their new Limited Ingredients line, and of course they liked it for the first few weeks, but now they aren't so sure.

Seems to me like the better the food is supposed to be the less they want to eat it. At least for my 7.

 

The was searching the site for any Evo related posts and came upon this string. I was ordering Evo 95% chicken and turkey (canned) from chewey.com since this food seemed to work for my Rui (diabetic and has acromegaly). I mix the Evo with Tiki Cat. They've recently changed the formula to 95% chicken, turkey and liver w/gravy. Seeing the "w/gravy" concerned me since everything I read says to stay away from they gravy due to higher carbs. I spoke to a customer service rep who said even though it contains gravy the gravy is not made from any grain products which increases the carbs. He said the carbs were the same, but the phosphorus was slightly higher. I'm not sure I'm trusting that. Anyone have any information on the formula change? Thx.

 

This is from their website - it mentions gravy, so I'm guessing they've changed the guaranteed analysis and also the TNA to show the new information http://www.evopet.com/products/1401

It looks as though it should still be OK though the rise in phosphorus, which I can't calculate (because my brain's being stupid today while I have a head cold), isn't great to hear about as I only ever bought it because it's low phosphorus (I haven't bought any in a while because our cats went off it after eating it just fine for a short time).

 

OK, that was me being totally stupid - once you take the moisture out, it's only a little over 25% dry matter. And the wet matter phosphorus is 0.4% so even on the roughest of calculations (multiplying by 4) the phosphorus is now way too high for a CKD cat.

 

Goof reached the point where he no longer liked this food. And with 6 cats I just can't swing Wellness or the other premium foods, so he gets Friskies, the same as the others. I do buy a can or 2 of the "good stuff" periodically just to keep him from getting bored with his food.

 

Our lot too - they ate it for a bit, then Regan started trying to bury it instead of eating it...BRAT!!! From that point on, none of them really wanted to eat it any more.

I hear you on that! I think it costs me more to feed the cats than it does to feed ourselves! If I ever get Rosa's CKD numbers stabilized, I'm going to have to reintroduce Friskies at least part of the time just on a cost basis.

 

Thanks for your replies. Are there any low carb/phosphorous foods you would recommend. I looked on Dr. Lisa's chart and I see some Weruva canned foods that looked like a reasonable replacement. Also Nature's Instinct Duck and Merrick chicken pate. Speaking of phosphorous. What is the baseline I should be looking at? Don't go above?

 

I try to stay under 1% phosphorus for food, though Rosa also gets a small dose of binder twice a day. This is the list that I use when I'm buying foods - I took information from the catinfo.org site and put it into a format I can use quickly. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E_HZnTcJdsr20Gpivo2ID1KQ9wlZAe1Xy3LDTDVRofU/edit#gid=0

 

Weruva is one of the few companies that have detailed nutritional information on their website but it is split up by food line. You will notice there are quite a few varieties that have been introduced since the last update of Dr. Lisa's food list.

http://www.weruva.com/truluxe-nutrition.php
http://weruva.com/weruva-cat-cuisine-nutrition.php
http://www.bestfriendsfoods.com/nutrition.shtml
http://weruva.com/catsitk-cans-nutrition.php
http://weruva.com/catsitk-pouches-nutrition.php

 

There are a lot of things gravy can be made of besides grains that can increase the carbs (potato as a thickener?!?) I would have asked them for their new numbers not just a generic statement. Gravy can be just oil/grease/water based, but I'd want to know that for sure. Often times phosphorus goes up when they start using lesser quality meats.

 

Fun fact: You can also create something like gravy by deglazing the fond leftover from cooking meat in a pan and reducing the liquid. The gelatin that is released from bones during cooking will actually help thicken the sauce. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-deglaze-a-pan-to-make-a-sauce.html (All of the other explanations I found got way too fancy or added butter for "richness")

Now I don't think major food manufacturers are making gravy without adding some sort of thickener but it is possible!

 

Proctor and Gamble bought Natura Pet Products in 2010. Natura made Evo, Innova, California Natural, Karma and Healthwise.

P&G bought out Iams and Eukanuba several years earlier. They pretty much destroyed Iams, I won't touch it.

In doing some researching, I see P&G has sold off their pet food lines to Mars Inc. in 2014. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mars-pgpetcare-acquisition-idUSBREA3811O20140409

Mars is dismantling Natura products, they have eliminated the entire Innova product line and looks like most of the EVO line.
http://www.chaar.us/blog/letter-to-our-customers-natura-discontinued-pet-foods/

Apparently they are also discontinuing the cat products in California Natural line. I stopped using California Natural chicken dry which was my cats' stable when they had that salmonella outbreak.

They have killed the EVO 95% lines, now as someone said, its 95 Chicken & Turkey recipe in Gravy Canned Cat food. I'm guessing the "gravy" is from Guar Gum, Cassia Gum and Xanthan Gum?

My cats liked EVO and Innova. This is horrible news.

I used to use Felidae sometimes, but then when they changed the label to Canidae (HELLO! Felidae is CAT, Canidae is DOG!), my cats pretty much refuse to eat any of it.

Before Grain was bought by Merrick and it went away, now the closest is Perfect Bistro. I think the Limited Ingredient line all has peas in it?

Our specialty foods are going away, it gets harder and harder to find stuff without gravy and carbs for our cats.

 

Ours too. I don't know what they changed other than the name, but it went from being a much-loved food to one that was always left sitting in the bowl while other flavors disappeared.

I can't argue with that! It's even tougher when you need low phosphorus as well. Friskies SD was my go-to until they discontinued that...now Evo is gone, as well as anything useful from Canidae (no good if the cats won't eat it). The ones that are left are mostly insanely expensive to offer any sort of choice for our cats (and with the number of cats in our house, cost HAS to be a consideration...the money only goes so far). I find I constantly have to shop around for discounts just to be able to feed them all something that's suitable for all of them now.

 

Thanks all. Yes, I believe the rep I spoke to said the new Evo formula did not use grain, but guar gum, etc. This is very frustrating--changing up formulas. They discontinued the 95% in the fall, but then it was available again. Not any more. I guess I'll be shopping and comparing labels this weekend! Thanks for all the links.

 

I have not seen Hounds and Gatos in Ohio, so have never tried it. My cats eat a lot of Wellness (regular and Luxe), Weruva (including BFF, Solid Gold, and their specialty line), some Perfect Bistro, Tiki Cat and Fussy Cat. Unfortunately a lot of that is fish, or includes fish. I've now started the "Classic" Fancy Feasts, because of the diabetic cat. For some reason my guys will not eat Nature's Variety Instinct flavors very often.

I get my Wellness at a place called The Andersons General Store, at significantly reduced price compared to the pet food stores. So you might try farm and feed type stores to see if it carries Wellness and if it is cheaper there.

 

Hi everyone, its been a long time since we've posted here but mocha is a diet controlled kitty (5+ years) eating walmarts special kitty turkey and giblets ... her last two senior blood work panels her kidney levels have been slightly elevated, though staying steady .. The vet wants us to try a new diet for her, of course she recommended royal canin and hills diet but we'd rather work with what we can get locally .. We had a few cans of EVO 95% chicken and turkey from her last bout of not eating well in February .. I see now, doing some research this seems to be discontinued? What now is the best foods to buy that is low carbs and low phos. for a diet controlled cat? Don't really want to go prescription route if at all possible. Thanks!

 

Here's a link to Tess's spreadsheet. On the fourth tab in the spreadsheet you'll find a low carb, low phosphorus food list for the US.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AF1EW8KK--pT1_xKVrY9GRdwny7rA6tbm4wSU8zuT9g/pub?pli=1#


Mogs
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Hi Devon! It's good to hear Mocha continues to be diet controlled! You may have noticed this is an old thread and yes, the cans of EVO 95% chicken and turkey were discontinued awhile back. It's too bad because my cats loved it!

Anyway, I believe this is the most current low carb - lower phos list we have available on the FDMB today:
Food list under 10% carbs, under 1% phosphorus (2016)

Take care...

 

Hi Jill! That is a real bummer on their food being discontinued ... Thanks so much for posting the link, guess its time to hunt down a new food for her! Hope all is well with everyone!

 

Wow, this thread has been very interesting. Thanks to @PeterDevonMocha for reviving it. Lately, Hannah hasn't been all that keen on her Fancy Feast paté menu, so I had this plan to go shopping, carb list in hand, and come home with all sorts of foods that would be good for her and jump start her failing appetite. DH and I went shopping this afternoon and became very frustrated at what little we could find. Actually, he held up better than I did. We didn't come home with much and this thread seems to explain why. And what we did find were mostly fishy flavors that she's never really liked and that aren't all that good for her on a daily basis. Now I'm frustrated and just a tad bit cranky. Why do pet food manufacturers feel the need to mess with good products?! For cryin' out loud... if it ain't broke, why do they feel the need to fix it?!

 

My cat loves Natural Balance chicken, salmon and duck Ultra Premium. It's low carb.