I recently decide to switch my 12-week-old male GSD to Innova dry food after reading many articles here on the site. What have been some of your personal experiences with Innova? I tried that with the older dog, 2-month-old rot-lab mix but he won't touch it. I tried in small amounts blending it with the Pedigree that he was on however no luck yet.

Has anyone had experience with Alfalfa and Kelp with their pups?

Thanks

Mike, I had no problem with INNOVA except for it being over priced. My pups had no problem with it but thank god I found something just as good at 1/2 the cost. It's called "CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE PUPPY/DOG LOVERS SOUL.

Human grade ingredients and after comparing it to INNOVA they are extremely close to being the same. My pups are doing excellent on it. They have their own web site even though DIAMOND makes it.

Glenn

Mike I have been using Innova for over a year. I like it a lot. My dogs go crazy over it. Most of the chicken soup line looks good also. I seem to remember picking a bag up once that had some questional ingriedients. I cant remember if this was a special line. They also make a canned version of Innova you could try to mix in if Chicken soup doesnt work out for you. Just be careful about switching around to much. Glen where do you get your food from. Everywhere Ive lived ( Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Texas, Tennesse and now St louis ) they are comparably priced. The Chicken Soup web site sells for 29.99 for a 35 lb bag with a 2.99 handling fee and 10.84 for shipping. Im currently paying 38 for a 33 lb bag of innova. If I could get this food at half the price I just may think about switching. I used to work part time for a small pet store and we made about 5 cents on each bag of dog food we sold including Innova. Its hard to make a good profit on it but its how we got people in the door.

Mike Franklin, I just paid INCLUDING tax $24.99 for a 35lb bag of Chicken Soup for Puppies and paid the exact same price for the Adult formula. Now some of the pet stores sell the same bags Pup/Adult formulas at $25.99 plus tax for puppy and $29.99 plus tax for the Adult formula. I hope this particular pet store keeps ordering it or I'll have to pay the other price somewhere else. BUT, it's still alot cheaper than INNOVA. I paid close to $50.00 for the 33lb bag of INNOVA. One bag of that and I knew I would not want to keep paying that price long term. I found Chicken Soup by chance when doing comparisons and thats when I found out that Chicken Soup had almost exactly the same ingredients.

Glenn

I've been feeding Innova for about 6 months. It is expensive, but I love the ingrediants. My dogs are picky eaters and don't eat much so a high quality food is a must. only problem I've had is at first the dogs were a bit gassy.

I just want to know where. I have never seen such a price difference in premium dog foods ever. So if I could save this much money I would be happy. Even with a 11 dollar shipping fee this would be a little cheaper. But maybe the shipping wont be that high. Please help me out where do you get this from.

Mike F.

I live in Kansas City and this particular pet store is up and down with their prices. I just bought the (2) 35lb bags I mentioned about 3 days ago. The owner herself give me these prices and I was told that it was well below her cost. Why I don't know! She did say that Diamond is not going to supply her dog food Rep with Chicken Soup anymore and she didn't know why. She said she wasn't sure what is going to happen.

The place is PRECIOUS COMPANIONS, 1325 East Sante Fe, Olathe, Kansas 66061 Phone# 913-782-9777.

After looking at my receipt I paid $3.76 in taxes so for two 35lb bags the total was $53.74.

Give them a call if you want and see what they tell you.

Another store I was buying this at was LLOYD'S DOG & HORSE and my order was back ordered for reasons they didn't understand. They are trying to find out why. It may be that they have to buy a certain amount but we don't know yet. They had special ordered (1) bag for me just two weeks ago and it came in so go figure.

I'm not sure if this stuff is gong over well in Kansas City. Alot of people don't like the name and think it is 100% veggie and don't read the ingredients.

Hope this helps. Let me know.

Glenn

Thanks Glen. I'll check it out. I was honestly just trying to make a point without being an @#$. We started to carry Chicken soup when I left the store so I remember it being competitive with the other foods. Bottom line I think is these are both good foods and for that they cost a lot of money to make. As I said before they dont make a lot of money off of a bag. But Im paying 38 here in St louis so sounds like there might be some gouging going on at your local pet store. When you said 50 a bag I thought you lived in CA. The most Ive payed for Innova was about 43 I think, in Austin. Another note: another problem is that a lot of these premium foods come and go. Or certain areas only carry certain brands. There are a lot of little known brands out there. Since I move around a lot I tried to find one that was good, well established and could be found throughout the US. And its hard enough sometimes just to find Innova in a new city.

Locally... Innova is $53.95 for a 33lb bag. Granted that is the price from the nicest natural food and fine wine store around, but still... it is the only source for at least 30 miles.

Just to verify that things do get out of whack price wise. I never fed it for that very reason. I am in Maine.

Innova seems to be a profitable item. At the local health food store, Mustard Seed Market, they sell it for around $49 / 33# bag. At the Natural Health Pharmacy store downtown, they only charge $40 / 33# bag.

However, when comparing cost to other dog foods, you need to remember to look at how much you actually have to feed. Innova seems to be pretty nutrient dense. A 33# bag will last about a month for my 95 pound moderately active dog. The balance of his food is chicken, ribs, canned salmon and treats.