My experience with Innova is great. The transition period was no trouble because I followed the guidelines. My olde english bulldogge was eating Iams smart puppy and I noticed he was developing hives. We switched his food to Innova puppy and now he looks great and stocky. His stool was fine throughout the transition and I even called Innova to get the right transition mixes. first week 75% old food 25% new food. second week I did 50/50. and by the third week he was eating mostly innova and a little bit of Iams. If you follow the schedule, it should be fine. I will stick with innova!

So far so good. I have just recently switched my Sheltie from Hills Science Diet to Innova. I took nearly 2.5 weeks making the switch and she has been on 100% Innova for a little over a week now. She seems to be doing well, no diarrhea like others have mentioned on this site. Like many I was concerned about the ingredients in Science Diet. However, she loved the SD and did well on that: did not have any upset stomach or bowels on that either, and she had a shiny coat, vet said she was in optimum health and suggested keeping her on SD. I wanted her to be on a more wholesome dog food. I likened SD to Wonder Bread, you can live on it and it's fortified, but there are better options out there. Luckily my baby girl must have a cast iron stomach because she has taken well to both foods. The only other food she did not like was the Purina Pro Plan I had originally fed her because that is what the breeder had her on. She would pick at the Pro Plan. She gobbled both the SD and now Innova. I'll have to watch her weight as the Innova has more calories. I think her coat is even shinier on the Innova. She doesn't poop as much, not sure what to make of that, but I think it's because the SD had so much corn it just went right through her. I'm glad she can eat this better quality/ingredient dog food. It is more expensive, but I think it will average out if I have to cut back because the calorie count is higher. I can't complain about the cost of her food, she will never cost me a college tuition or ask for a car (LOL). Thanks to all the other dog parents for your feedback. This site was very helpful in my research of pet foods.

I used to purchase eukanuba for the first few months w my pittie until I learned about how horrible by-products (and corn fillers) are for your dog and immediately began researching for a natural, healthy alternative. After a lot of research I went immediately to innova but after talking w my pitt-experienced friend began mixing it w timberwolf blue buffalo(hoping to switch over completely) which looks to have nothing but great ingredients(smells strong and fishy, the dogs seemed to love the taste) in it but if she was fed over 1/4-1/2 cup mixed w her food she would have uncontrollable diarreha. I thought she just was not used to it yet and tried 3-4 times over time to increase the amount w each time the same result. After going through two whole bags that way I decided it might just be too rich or high in protein for her lifestyle (20-30min walk a day..usually longer on weekends) Every dog is diff bc my mom's chihuahua could eat as much as he wanted of the timberwolf w no prob! We did go right back to the innova.

My trainer recommended healthwise as a by-product free healthy alternative which my pittie seemed to like and had no problems with. I got it for a little above $30 @ tomlinsons for a 35lb bag-the green one.

We tried a bag of natural balance when my sisters pit-boxer mix was staying w us and the dogs seemed to like that a lot also- ingredients looked healthy & yummy!

After more research I decided on Innova for good, it is what I would call a perfect dog food! It is a little more pricey than the healthwise but I believe lower than natural balance. My mom's chihuahua who shed ALL the time EVERYWHERE reduced his shedding by I would say at least 85% after a couple weeks on it. My american pit bull has not had a shedding problem. He and my pittie poop less, have healthy looking eyes and Beautiful shiny coats. They are extremely healthy dogs (chihuahua- 5 yrs; pit bull just turned 2yrs) even regarding the chihuahua's digestive problems- he had no more trouble once he transitioned to innova adult formula, small bites of course! We mix the kibble w the innova wet food regularly, I just purchased some of the innova Evo canned wet which I might stick w. Love this brand!
If you have a hard working or very active dog I might venture to the innova Evo but it is also more expensive, I have heard of people mixing the formulas also.
I just switched the wet food i mix w her kibble from innova to innova Evo bc the canned wet seems to be the same price but you get 95%meat- She Loves it!

(On the packaging of innova it says to feed your puppy the puppy formula until 2 years of age.)

I love this food for my dog. She has been eating the canned puppy along with her dry food and loves it. Full of quality ingredients so I feel perfectly comfortable giving her this food. She has never had diarrhea or any other upsets and her coat is nice (but she is still a puppy). I have not tried the dry yet, but it's next on my list as part of her rotation. If you go to the company's website you can request a coupon for $5 off and also a separte $3 off! As soon as I get her on the dry (she's got about 1-2weeks left of what she's on) I'll update with how she is doing on that.

Update: she is almost 100% switched over from natural balance ultra premium and she is doing great! She finishes her food every time she eats (3x day) and now that it's getting cooler out she has been running around the yard like crazy playing ball and frisbee with her sisters. I am definitly keeping her on this food, I'm very pleased with everything about it.

love it!!

Both my 7 year old Lab and 5 year old Weimaraner had been on Innova Adult for a very long time and both had been doing fantastically on the food with good energy, muscle tone and shinny fur.

However, up to about a month or so ago after I bought another batch of 3 packets of 15 kgs bags, things have been going south. Essentially, my Lab who has always had the most robust stomach started getting very soft and wet stool. I could not possibly comprehend why it happened. After which I took a look at the formula again thinking perhaps may be it was the low fibre content of 1.92%, so I then switched both dogs over to Innova Large Breed Adult which has 3% (which is my usual fibre content benchmark). At first, both dogs were OK, after may be a week, the Weimaraner started getting very gassy and the stool slowly started to deteoriate until it became wet at 1 1/2 weeks.

Personally, I hate changing dog food as it is very hard to find one that works. Right now, I have put them on a Wellness Core trial to see how things work out.

Did anyone experience this sudden problem recently ? It is just terribly frustrating.

Another fantastic formula! Innova is another top-echelon pet food, and the ingredients list shows it. Meats are the first three ingredients in the bag. Like Solid Gold, Innova's original formula DOES use rice fractions, and I'm not thrilled about increasing carb portions in that manner, but even taking that into consideration, Innova STILL ranks among the best dog foods on the planet.

I transitioned my two pups to Innova dry puppy food, first adding a little to their old food then slowly increasing the ratio of Innova to the old food until they were on Innova 100%. I have a Shepard mix (8 months old) and a Cocker Spaniel/Dachshund mix (9 months old). I do not over feed them and they are both very active.

I researched this food carefully before feeding it to them. On paper, it's great. The reality is gas and diarrhea, at least for my dogs. Obviously, like people, certain foods agree or disagree with certain dogs. My Shepard mix got the worst of it, extremely loose stools and bad gas the entire time she ate this food. The Cocker/Dachshund mix had bad gas too but his diarrhea was intermittent. I had them on it for 10 weeks, adjusting the daily amounts and feeding times in an attempt to solve the problem before I gave up on it.

Aside from the gas and diarrhea, they are very healthy and growing nicely and gaining weight normally. I wish I could keep them on this food because I know it is quality stuff. I don't blame Innova or the ingredients. Every creature is different.

As an experiment at the end of the 10 weeks, I transitioned them to a grocery store brand (Purina Beneful Puppy - since I had some already) and they have been fine ever since. Now the search begins for a healthy, high quality alternative dry food for them because I refuse to feed them some crap with corn in it long-term. Not sure what I should try though.

In support of the Innova line though, both of my dogs LOVE their HealthBar baked dog treats, with no ill effects.

I have 4 dogs and feed Innova to my standard Poodle. We tried other well known brands before the Innova, but they just didn't agree with her. Innova solved our problem. Her coat is beautiful and we are both very happy. The only downside I have found is that because I have 4 dogs (each fed a different food), I find that I pay more for dog food locally. I have found petfoodauthority.com to be the least expensive online store - don't know if this is true for other brands of food, but my comparison on the foods I feed and prices paid locally, I get a better deal online.

FOR SMALL DOG OWNERS: I would NOT recommend the DRY Innova for small dogs or any dog with a sensitive digestive system. I tried a small amount of the dry mixed with the canned and my dogs got horrible diarrhea. Small dogs such as Chihuahuas can die very quickly from hypoglycemia or dehydration due to diarrhea. The CANNED reduced fat Innova has been wonderful for my Chihuahuas. They were SLOWLY introduced to it. It took us two weeks to get off the Purina onto the Innova Canned. It is the only food my Chihuahuas will eat. We tried Blue Buffalo canned and then Nutro canned but they would not touch it. Finally we found Innova canned dog food and my picky eaters turned to plate cleaners. Occasionally my female had diarrhea on Innova canned alone so she gets a few kibbles of Science Diet W/D mixed in for extra fiber.

I used this site extensively when I was researching foods for our new puppy. The ingredients in Innova dog foods are definitely top quality, and the excellent reviews and recommendation from our dog trainer really made us think that it was a winner. However, our new puppy, a Bernese Mountain dog mix, did not like it at all. We initially mixed it with the Science Diet they had been feeding him at the shelter. He would pick out the Science Diet kibbles to eat and not even touch the Innova. Eventually, he began to eat it, but it took him forever to finish a bowl of food. We recently switched him to the Blue Buffalo large breed puppy formula (which I was surprised to find at PetSmart), and he has been eating it with no problem, finishing a cup and a half of food within 5 to 10 minutes!

We have fed our two older dogs, both Lab/ shepherd mixes, Innova large breed adult food in the past as well. One of our dogs, a very picky eater, behaved much like our new puppy. He really did not like it. Our other dog will eat anything and seemed to love the food. Now she is 11 years old, and we recently began feeding her the senior Innova food (after a year break from Innova). Now, even she's refusing the Innova. Our older dogs both seem to enjoy the Nutro Max lamb and rice food. Its ingredients are not nearly as good as Innova's list, but it can be conveniently purchased at PetSmart, and they both really like it. Our picky eater really seems to enjoy having his food changed every six months or so (and the 11 year old has never really cared about what she eats) so we have the opportunity to research new foods fairly frequently. I think that if your dog enjoys eating the Innova food, then you are very fortunate. It is a top quality food that is worth the slightly high price tag. I just hate to see such a great food go to waste because my dogs refuse to eat it.

Good, exceptional ingredients, however after two large bags, the loose stools just didn't end (after a two week transition on top). The thing that really bothered me was that my dog's coat lost it's shine and the got dandruff back and the shedding! I was very disappointed, especially after hearing such good things about it.

Awesome, wholesome ingredients. Just the right amount of everything. Good stools, no gas, shiny coat and smiles at feeding time.

I feel it is an alright dogfood. On a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 8. My little Chihuahua's seem to do pretty well on it. God bless. :-)

I have been feeding this to my dogs for several months. They range form 15 years to 8 months. My Great Dane looks terrific on this food- he is a mere 4 years old and had 2 TPLOs done at the ages of 1 and 2 years. I felt his diet may have negatively impacted his highly suspect gene pool so I switched from the bigger commercial brands until I found Innova. They love the food (he previously had to have canned dog food on top of dry) and he is now exteremely active- almost deying the odds that our vet gave us. I do give him a joint supplement as well since he has tremendous needs for Glucosamine and all that stuff as a Giant giant breed dog. Innova may be making my Bullmastiff puppy flatulent (more than usual) so I am considering changing her food but she is in great shape and very well muscled.Her coat glows.

Damn, I love this stuff.

After trying several brands I've settled on Innova. Purina One and Royal Canin were causing excessive shedding, and I had to feed large amounts to keep the dog healthy. Blue Buffalo caused continual diahrrea. Now I'm feeding a mix of Innova (regular) and Evo, and my Lab/Beagle mix is doing great (good stools, fur is good, energy is high, maintaining weight).

After 2 years of vet bills, allergy staph infection sores and runny stools, I took my cocker off Science Diet Ultra Z (supposidly for dogs with food allergies) and put him on Innova. He has been 8 months allergy symptom free, shiney coat, regular stools, and has his energy back. What a difference. And for those of you that feed your pets IAMS, PLEASE GO TO WWW.IAMSCRUELTY.COM and see if you still want to support this company. Iams no longer owns this company, Purina bought them out. Check the change in ingrediants. It's grocy store dog food, Iams bag and price.

My Terrier mix loves this. I rotate with Orijen dog food, another great product. My dog has had no problems switching over to this food at all. She's a picky eater, but seems to really like this alot. Same with the Orijen. Most all other dog food she will eat for a day or two only, then stops. But these foods must taste much better. And they seem to be very high quality. She has a shinny coat, tons of energy, no medical problems. She had reacurring eye infections when i got her and she was eating Natural Balance. When i switched, her eyes cleared up and she put on a much needed 10lbs. over a 6 month period. Shes a very active dog and i could see how a dog food with this much protein/calories could possibly cause inactive dogs to gain weight.

Innova is the best dog food on the market.  We have been using it for 15 months now.  Our vet says our dog is the best looking Pug she has ever seen.  Very lean and muscular, loves to go on walks and play all day, the complete opposite of the breed.  However, we believe he has developed an allergy to something in his food, we regret that we did not rotate his food on a monthly basis, or every 3 months at the very least to avoid a possible allergic reaction.  We have just started him on a Raw Diet, will keep you updated on how well he does on this.

Hard time switching? CHECK THE TREATS INGREDIENTS THAT YOUR GIVING!!!!!
If there were 10 stars, i'd give this one all ten!!!!
on and off stomach upsets for my lab puppy last year while on Science
Diet. Then the ear/feet/eye started, well, off to the vet, gave me the prescrip food, and boy did "pete" look like a homeless pet!!!!
After researching allthis great info,i tried the Innova Adult- YOU MUST GO SLOW - HAVE THE PUMPKIN READY - AND BE PATIENT - I think I took a month. Was it ever worth it!!!! in 36 hours his hair is completely full of shine!!! ears are pink once again, and eyes just glow. His muscle tone is just beautiful, and his mood/behavior is the best.
you'll know when you give them too much, even for the first couple of months, increase the amount SLOWLY. Petes been on it for "4" months, and we finally have it very accurate.
Still having problems? DONT FORGET TO CHECK THE INGREDIENTS IN THE TREATS YOU GIVE THEM!!!!!!! for goodness sake, detox the body to the food, but blast it with the "cookie"?

I have tried to feed this food to my dogs several times.  I like that the ingredients are wholesome and the company is wonderful to work with (answering questions, etc).  However, Innova either gives them diarrhea or constipates them, AND gives them room-clearing gas.  Might be that there are just too many ingredients in this food for my guys!

ingredients are great, but hootch has had the s*&t's a few times so far. we'll see how it goes, if no improvement i'll go back to canidae. although the new formula of that supposedly sucks as well. i don't know what to do.

The ingredients in this food are above and beyond regular dog food! I couldn't believe it when I read it. It was so wonderful that they care so much to use such wonderful ingredients. I am just amazed at the all natural ingredients they use in their food.

My English Springer Spaniel puppy was on the food for 8 weeks. She had runny stools that were very smelly. Then she developed a urinary tract infection. I switched her to Blue Buffalo, and she is doing great!

Great indgredients. Great mauf company. Didn't agree with my pup, gave her yeast infection in her nails after 2 weeks of use.

This is a great food.  The company Natura I feel is a great company as well.  BUT some dogs can not digest it.  It is a very rich food and if your dog has loose stool on this for more than 4 weeks I'd say drop it.  But I've noticed it took a good 6 weeks before my dog had a very consistent stool.  Off and on she had loose stool here and there and even threw up a few times during the 6 week at 100% Innova.  I kept on going and finally everything was fine.  In this 6 week period she showed no signs of being tired, sick, etc...  her coat got so shiny and her eyes so clear and attentive.  Poos were a lot smaller and less frequent.  Vet said she is in optimal shape and to keep her on Innova.  If your dog can handle this food all the better, if not, do not use it.  This is not a food for a dog with allergies and the such.  Its a complex formula.

My shih tzu became very ill while on this highly rated dog food for a year. I switched over after all the scare.I noticed that over many months she started having trouble jumping, then more lathargic and finally throwing up all the time. Now on homemade diet and all symptoms are gone.

Simply a great food, I wish my dog could eat it, but we had to take him off due to his chicken allergies. If Innova made a chicken free formula, I'd have my pomeranian on it in an instant.

My dogs love it.I have 2 jacks and they have been doing great on it. my female had gotten overweight after i started making their food after the dog foods recall. i researched and researched foods and found this one easily accessable and affordable. my female lost the added weight and both my dogs are doing very well with the innova

Initially I fed my Lab "Purina One" because that's what the breeder used. "Taz" eventually started having chronic ear infections, and after the vet found nothing medically wrong, I decided to switch foods after reading about food allergies in dogs. The nearby independent pet store recommended Pinnacle, and that proved to be very good. The ear infections dropped to almost nil. Then the store stopped carrying Pinnacle because they felt its quality had declined under new ownership, and they recommended Nature's Variety. That seemed ok as well, though my dog starting shaking his head more, obviously having some ear discomfort. Well, I procrastinated buying dog food until I basically ran out, and when I went to get more of the Nature's Variety, the store was completely out of ALL dog food. They'd been unreliable before, so I decided to find another supplier. After some research, I came up with a list of three or four foods to look for, and Innova won out because of its availability. Because I had none of the other dog food left, I switched "Taz" cold turkey. He's only been using the Innova for a few weeks now, but he loves it, had absolutely no problems switching, is no longer shaking his head, and his stools are firm, small (relatively), and nearly odorless - basically, the best stools he's ever had if you're into stool analysis. Unless something changes, I suspect he will be on Innova for a very long time. The stuff even smells good enough to serve my kids, but Cocoa Puffs is a lot cheaper.

My golden loved this food...and he had no adverse reactions when I adruptly changed to this from Iams. The ONLY reason I went back to Iams is because his metabalism went out of wack....always hungry, never satisfied, begging.  He just always seemed hungry and he is prone to being overweight.  So I went back to my Iams, and that seems to be the food that works best for him.  But I like the reputation of Innova's company Natura.  They seem to be honest and doesn't sell from hype.  They work from the view point that this food needs to be as close to people food as possible...and it is true the ingredient list will make your mouth water. 

I'm editing this and raising the rating:  My dog seems to gain weight easily and opine with any food and may have a thyroid problem.  He loved Innova (really loved it) and I have much respect for the company.  So this warrents more of a rating for me.  We might try it again....

I tried this food (puppy formula) with my 10 month old GSP for about 6 weeks.  This food did not do a good job of maintaining her during training at all.  A lot of people claim this is a rich food, and it appears to be with over 500 kcal/cup, however I wonder about the quality of the protein, as my puppy was losing muscle mass while on this food.  She was also incredibly gassy with this food.  She did however have good stools.  It was very inefficient to feed her however, and we are looking for something else.  I wouldn't suggest this food for performance type dogs.

I use Innova cat and Innova senior dog food.  Animals are doing well and love it.

The ingredients listed for the Innova Adult Small Bites are pretty impressive. Several "named" meats listed first, followed by all wholesome nutritious ingredients, makes Innova one of the most nutrient-dense dog foods on the market. Exactly what every dog food should contain.  What Innova doesn't contain is corn, wheat, soy, by-products, fillers  and artificial ingredients of any kind.   

Though this food appears to be alittle pricey, compared to other so-called premium foods it is actually reasonably priced. You feed less food per day so a bag of food goes farther.  And a well-fed dog is a healthy dog, requiring far fewer trips to the vet.   That in itself is a great money-saver.

The ingredient list is good but the calories per cup are very high compared to other high quality foods. Unfortuneately, my dog did not do well on this at all. He gained 8 pounds in 8 months, had less energy and a dull coat. We cut back his food and increased his exercise to no avail. Then spent hundreds of dollars in vet bills, thyroid test, blood work, accupuncture, homeopathic and chinese medicines trying to determine the reason for the rapid weight gain. Before realizing it was a result of his food. This food is quite rich.

We have used Innova at times when waiting for regular food to arrive and found it to be a good product. Digestibility is good, stools are good and condition is supported. Be careful not to overfeed or GI upset can occur, this is a rich food.

My dog had terrible runny stools on this food. She also didn't like it very much. She ate it, but not with gusto like she does with her food now. I was not impressed.

I have a 2 year old male, neutered Chihuahua on innova adult and he loves it! Rescued him from a backyard breeder feedinghim beneful and other crap. His coat is so soft and shiny, his attitude is better and he just acts like he feels good. Cost is an issue as I have 4 Rhodesian Ridgebacks and a jack russell also. Definately a great food, but again, there is no one food for every dog.

We switched our Brindle Boxer from Eukanuba after reading about the ingredients and where it is manufactured. We chose Wellness puppy based on quality and availability. This proved to be a big mistake, Max, as many dogs do, got very bad diarhhea ultimately after 2 weeks with blood in it. We found many people had this problem, the food mix seems too rich fro some breeds, we switched to Innova and he almost immediately was back to normal. Solid stool, he absolutely Y

You would be hard pressed to find something significantly better. I do feel in my gut from what I've read that the only brand that would be possibly better than this is Orijen, but the difference is miniscule, and for me in New York City, Orijen is not easily available, and it costs nearly twice that of Innova.

I recommend you use this site and comppare the comments to the ingredients in the foods, you can find these at http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com

My dog loved the taste, however THE GAS THE GAS THE GAS....it was terrible.  Her stools were normal, maybe darker that usual.  She would just have the worst gas, and would have it often.  It got hard to be in same room with her.  I've started her on Timberwolve, I'll see how that works.

I researched dog food before I bought my mini Schnauzer. Innova was obviously the best choice, all natural, and fit for human consumption. After finding out what ingredients are used in most pet foods, Innova was the ONLY choice that made since. My father-in-law accidentally purchased a different (but fairly good) brand and we fed it to our dog. She developed a yeast infection in her ears and was constantly licking her paws. She had food allergies! We immediately ran out and bought a bag of Innova. Within a few days she was back to normal, and the yeast infection in her ears disappeared. BEST food on the market. I won't feed my dog anything that isn't safe for me to eat.

Unfortunately,  my 3 month old Bernese DID NOT like it!  The ingredients are great ~ other than I am not a potato fan (potato = starch = sugar).  Potato is relatively low on the panel, BUT no matter how good a food is, if your dog won't eat it ~ who cares what's in it!  I did give it three stars though, for ingredients.

My 8 month old labradoodle puppy used to eat Canidae ALS. All of a sudden, she refused to eat it. I started giving her Innova puppy dry mixed with a little canned Canidae and she does like that. Also, with the Innova, she has less stools (which is a good thing!)

If you aren't feeding your puppy/dog Innova food, you REALLY need to look into it. Like many others, I started with Eukanuba/Iams Smart Puppy at first because of 2 reasons. First, that is what the breeder of my Labrador puppy fed her dogs/pups. Second, I was enticed by the "smart puppy", wanting my dog to be happy and healthy. After doing my research, and learning that dogs CANNOT digest corn (just like humans don't digest it well) and seeing that corn is a primary ingredient in these pet store brands, I realized that what I'm paying for is increased puppy poop. After reading the reviews and the ingredients of Innova Large Breed Puppy food, I was sold...and a little hungry. It only makes sense that all natural, human grade ingredients would be the best for my little buddy. Yes, it is more expensive than Ol Roy or other low quality foods (doesn't it scare you that a 40 lb. bag of food is on sale for $9.99?)...but isn't your companion worth it? Actually a 16.5 lb bag of Innova Large Breed Puppy is around the same price as a 20 lb. bag of Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy. The only recommendation I have is switching to this food SLOOOOWWWWLY. It is VERY rich and nutrient dense, and it can upset sensitive puppy stomachs. I would transition over the course of at least 2-3 weeks. The puppy/dog will probably get soft/loose stool, but after calling Natura, this is normal since there are no artifical stool formers in the food. They recommend adding 1 teaspoon of canned pumpkin to the food (YES...dogs LOVE pumpkin, I didn't believe it until my puppy licked the pumpkin off of my finger and always ate it first out of his bowl)...and the extra fiber should help firm up the stool (and pumpkin can also be used in case a dog is constipated...has a sort of "either/or" effect.) After all is said and done, my puppy is happy, healthy...and driving me crazy. HA HA, just kidding. Hope this helps!

  Just thought I would add my $.02 after reading several reviews on this website.  I see several people saying there dogs have diarrhea and/or gas problems.  This is normally the direct result from over feeding your pet.  It's normall for your pet to have an upset stomache when changing foods... the best way to handle this is by mixing their old food with the new for atleast a week or so.  Also ... following the feeding table on the bag.  You will find that you don't have to feed them as much as you would "grocery store" dog foods. 

  As for my pup... I have a beautifal black (sealed reverse brindle) boxer male named Diesel.  I started him on innova a couple weeks after I got him.  I mixed with his old food for a week or so, then made the complete switch.  At a little over 6 months he's 45lbs!  I'm expecting too see him hit 80-90lbs when full grown.  He's absolutely gorgeous.  I can't say enough about this food.  It's by far the best product on the market.  IMO the only thing better is BARF (biologically appropriate raw food) however it's really expensive. http://www.barfworld.com  if you are interested.  Anyway, once again I cannot say enough good things about Innova!  It's a great choice, your pet will love it!

My 8 month old Shih-tzu x Bichon was eating Eagle Pack Holistic Selects' Chicken & Rice meal for the first few months but went off of it so I switched to Merrick's Chicken Pot Pie. The tear stains around her eyes got worse and her behaviour was hyper and erratic. So I did more research and have always wanted to try Innova but couldn't find it anywhere. By chance I discovered another pet store at the other end of my city and it sold Innova. I almost didn;t buy it as the calorie content was quite high - 500 kcal per cup versus Eagle Pack at 386 kcal per cup. But I figured, I could try it and if she started gaining weight, I could change her food again. But she couldn't get enough of it! Her tear stains have improved and her behaviour is 100% better - she is calm, she pay attention and no more demon spawn freakouts at night! She's back to her old self but even better! I like the fact that she is getting more nutrition from Innova because the foods like tomatoes and eggs are whole as opposed to being processed into tomato pomace or egg product. In addition, the food is baked, not extruded. Extruding removes much of the digestive enzymes and nutrients from the food. The reason I liked Eagle Pack was because they added these enzymes after cooking to ensure that the dog wasn't missing them but the fact that Natura bakes their dry dog food was a major factor in convincing me to continue feeding my dog Innova. And the calorie content is no longer a concern as my puppy is very active - she just spent a weekend in the country with 3 Border Collies and a Bernese Mountain Dog and this little teddy bear kept up with them on our hikes and ball/stick throwing!! Her coat is soft and shiny, her eyes are brighter than the sun and she doesn't experience any diarrhea. That said, Innova is rich and if you're going to switch, you have to switch a lot slower than you would for another dog food. Innova is more expensive than the grocery store brands but it makes up for it by keeping my dog healthy. Better than keeping the vet's profit margin healthy for sure!

My shihtzus love Innova! Prior to Innova, they were on Wellness puppy mix and were always very lethargic. They also vomitted yellow bile a couple mornings in a row and our vet said that it was because wellness is too rich for many dogs. Once we switched their energy levels went up and their BM's were improved. If you are looking for a great dog food, Innova is an excellent choice!

Claire is a Shih Tzu puppy, now 6 months. I started her out on Purina Puppy Chow, which is what her breeder had been feeding and she was ok with that for a while, but became picky. I also noticed that she seemed constipated with this. A neighbor mentioned that her vet had suggested adding 1/4 teasp. of cottage cheese, to keep eliminations regular. It helped some. Also was adding a bit of Gerbers baby lamb....what a hassle. So, I found out about Purina Pro Plan and got the Lamb and Rice kibble. Claire liked this better, than the other Purina, but then had to start adding stuff and recently she seems to just not wanna eat it. Not good. I was at the vet this am picking up Claire's medicine for post being spayed, she's in pain and one of the girl's there suggested INNOVA. I failed to mention that Claire LOVES raw APPLES, CARROTS, BANANNA, okra, she's like a VEGAN puppy. She's also NEVER wanted to eat kibble dry. When I put the INNOVA down, dry, just a few kibbles, she LOVED it! No wonder with all the natural ingredients. She just wanted more. She is now sleeping peacefully and I am hopeful that she will respond well, ( not have diareaha, etc.) I would imagine gas is a given with the fresh fruit etc. I was also a bit floored by the price, but it's a small company and ingredients are worth the xtra cost. Also,  if she's happy then it's worth the $$.

DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE A SMALL BREED PUPPY ON THE INNOVA? IF SO HOW IS YOUR RESPONDING? STOOLS OKAY? Thanks and have a Blessed Day!