Hi,
Both of these are good products.  Sukie I believe has mentioned before
about the possibilities of the protein being too high as to later
possibly form crystals.  I personally don't believe this would be true
to an obligated carnivore and neither does my vet.  Take Natural Gold,
it's 50% protein and formulation was based on the composition of an adult
mouse.  Yes, they basically took one apart and studied it to come up with
their formula..  protein, fat, carb and etc content.
 
If you consider the apples in most of the natural foods, they are used
for fiber and vitamen content.  Consider taking a bushel (if that much )
of apples and grinding it into ten tons of food and it's really not that
much.  Also the natural sugar content of apples is absorbed differently
then say rice into the bloodstream.  It doesn't affect the insulin
secretion like some of the other sugars out there including rice.
Carrots, mainly for vitamen purposes.  If the food is extruded and not
high temperature baked, the carrots would retain most of their vitamen
aspect.  Potatoes, that the starch used to hold the ingredients together
and does not affect blood sugar such as rice... it's not as absorbed the
same.  I haven't yet tried the Innova cat but I do add the dog to my mix.
Yes, I've heard the hub-bub about it being a dog food and in reality
aside from Natural Gold, or a natural diet it's top notch ingredients
wise and just as a part of my mix, Im more concerned with the benefits
it's shown on my fuzzies than someone knocking it down.  It has taurine
which is required and not normally used in dog foods.  Not much, just a
little based on it's ingredients which are very high quality.  I wouldn't
recommend it as an only food but added to a mix it's good stuff.  I will
try the cat version once it's on the shelves at the feed store.  In order
to figure out ingredients..
 
The most important thing is the quality of the ingredients followed by
the carbohydrate levels but more importantly the absorbtion of the
available carbohydrates.  Vitamens are important but if they've been high
temp cooked out, then re-added well the quality is not that great.  So
all in all if you have any questions feel free to ask the manufacturer
their process of adding say apples.  How many per ton?  Why do you use
carrots?  Why potatoes?  How do you cook it?  You'll be amazed because
they'll typically answer you and then you can be assured what their
process it, how it can benefit your fuzzies in the long run.  I have to
say since switching my kids to a combination of Natural Gold, Innova
EVO and Natural Balance and getting the rice out, the higher quality
ingredients in my kids are healthier, more musular, have better softer
coats and bright eyes with plenty of energy to spare.  Also my insulinoma
kids (adopted and previously feed junk food all their lives) are
maintaining their blood sugars without high doses of pred baring one end
stage insulinomac who still does much better on these formulas.  It is
expensive but my fuzz are worth it.
 
Leanne
[Posted in FML issue 4902]