Hello everyone! I am new to this board...but I find it so informative for Lab lovers! I have a three year old, beautiful yellow Lab, Toby. I have been feeding him Wellness chicken formula and sometimes switch to the lamb formula for quite some time now. He is so healthy, and looks beautiful..no allergies that I am aware of except... he always has problems with his anal glands. He gets so uncomfortable and scoots around! I have had him to the vet maybe three times or so to have them expressed. The Vet suggested that he may need more fiber in his food so I have been adding some canned pumpkin. I was thinking about switching to Innova because I have heard so many good things about it...the only think that stops me is that Innova has a very high calorie count per cup! We all know that Labs have a tendency to put weight on...so maybe Innova is not a good choice..I would love to hear from all you people that feed your adult Labs Innova and what you think about the food and if your dogs are able to maintain their weight while on this food. Thanks!

See my post about New Innova Large Breed - calories are a lot less than regular Innova adult (something I was concerned about with my couch potato).

If the calories are higher, you can feed less!

I can't speak first hand about Innova, although I think it is high quality. The high calorie aspect kind of scared me off. Something struck me concerning Toby's anal gland problem. Last time I took my dog, Zack, to his vet I asked him to check Zack's anal glands as he had been licking that area frequently. He expressed Zack's anal glands and it seemed to help alleviate Zack's discomfort. Zack is at least 10.5 years old and had never had a problem like this before. I asked the vet if a higher fiber content in his diet could help prevent a reoccurence and he told me that it would make no difference at all!

Thanks for your input. I have noticed that ever since I have been adding the pumpkin, he has not been scooting as much...I don't really know if it is helping that much. I know that all dogs are different and what may work for one may not work for another.

I've heard people complain that Innova is too rich, but you don't need to feed as much food because of the high calorie content. Too much and the stools get very loose and runny.

Just find out how many calories you need to feed in a day and measure out the correct amount at feeding time. Whether you feed 1400 calories of Innova or 1400 calories of another food isn't the difference...where you'll notice the difference is in the serving size. Innova only takes 2 3/4 cups and the other brands of food require up to 6 cups of food!

I was looking at Innova but wanted to wait until Molly was a little bit older (she was only 6 months when we started to change her food). I'm really excited to hear about the LB kibble they're coming out with.

Good luck!!!