I posted a little about this last month in the pregnant cats/kitten forum. The problem continues and has gotten a little worse, so I wanted to put the question here.
We adopted a litter of 4 kittens from the shelter 5 weeks ago. They are around 16-17 weeks currently. There are 3 boys; Hamilton, Harrison & Mango, and one girl, Molly.
I have had cats before, and did not do a great job at feeding them the appropriate food -- I was younger and poorer and clueless and just left dry food out. So they all happily became dry food addicts and despite great efforts when they were older, I could never get them to switch. Later in life we dealt with kidney disease, diabetes, pancreatitis, cancer, etc. -- all situations that may have at least been exacerbated by my cats poor diet -- and certainly to get meds and proper nutrition while they were sick was tricky since they refused to eat anything wet.
So -- with these kittens I really am motivated to get them eating wet from the start. I also hoped they would tolerate a variety of wet from the start. They ate purina pro plan wet and dry at the shelter, so I got a supply of that as well as a variety of other wet foods. I tried to get decent quality/decently nutritious wet food -- I get overwhelmed every time I try to sort through the Pierson (?) chart -- add to that knowing that kittens should only get 'kitten' food or food appropriate for all life stages, so I have spent a lot of time at Petsmart looking at cat food labels and trying to pick well.
For example, I have a bit of Instinct kitten as well as some of their all life stages varieties, Wellness kitten, Wellness CORE kitten & the all life stages varieties as well, Koha, Hound & Gatos, Nutro Max, Nulo, Merrick...I'm sure there have been a few others I have tried.
My kittens are laughing at my efforts.
Two of them are actually pretty decent eaters with the wet foods -- Hamilton and Harrison will eat most of the flavors/brands we have tried -- some notable exceptions (Guineafowl went down like a wet balloon...). But Molly and Mango are picky picky picky. At this point, there is maybe one brand/flavor that I can be reasonably assured all will eat -- Purina Pro Plan kitten wet flaked (it's some tuna/oceanfish something). Molly might eat some wellness CORE kitten and maybe some Instinct kitten. Mango will only eat the Purina Pro plan flavor mentioned above, and then in desperation yesterday I bought some Fancy Feast kitten and he ate one flavor of that. At times Mango would show a little bit of interest if I sprinkled some FortiFlora on his wet food, but that 'trick' only lasted a handful of times.
Even when they eat the wet food, it is a SMALL amount. I break up the large cans into four portions, and Harrison is the only one who ever finishes the whole amount. Even when Molly and Mango eat the wet food, they may eat only half of their portion. So they are getting no where near the 'recommended' amount of wet food (according to the backs of the food cans!).
I started to feed them the wet food 4 times a day -- because they eat so little in one serving (and I know they have small tummies, but really -- to eat less than 1/8 can of cat food in one meal seems REALLY small) and I wanted to see if they would eat more if it was offered more frequently.
They are gaining weight appropriately. Molly is the smallest, but even she is not underweight enough to warrant any concern. But since I know Molly and Mango are getting no where near enough wet food, this means they are chowing down on the dry food. For dry food I leave out a small amount of Purina Pro Plan Kitten, mixed with Wellness CORE Kitten. They didn't like the latter on it's own AT ALL, so that's why I've been mixing it with the Pro Plan. That hasn't worked too well as they just pick the Pro Plan pieces out and eat those. So, when I've used up the CORE dry, I may find another brand to try.
I've tried really limiting the dry food to see if Molly and Mango were just not hungry enough to go for the wet food. It didn't help them eat the wet food, and just made them hungry. I don't leave a ton of dry food out, and if taking it away completely is appropriate, I will try that, but for kittens I'm worried that completely eliminating the food they DO like isn't necessarily going to make them go for the wet, but could hurt their little growing bodies.
If these were older/adult cats I'd be more of a hard ass on eliminating the dry food, but as they are babies, I am not sure if that's an appropriate option. Hence, me being here to ask people who know way more about this than I do!
I'm not terribly interested in making my own cat food or feeding them a raw diet. The former may be a possibility if I could make it in bulk batches, but even then the idea overwhelms me a bit. With family, jobs, activities, etc. sometimes it feels like cooking real food for us humans is hard, much less cooking for 4 kittens.
They are healthy and happy kittens. They had URI when we got them from the shelter, but that ultimately cleared up.
In summary of this very long post --
1) Should i feed Molly and Mango whatever wet food they want -- even if it's literally the same brand/flavor every meal -- and even if it's not the 'best' in terms of ingredients (i.e. Fancy Feast kitten?) Is ANY wet food better than none?
2) Should I stop pushing wet food on those two and just let them eat dry food if they want? Is it likely that they'd be willing to try wet food later on -- or would giving up the wet food now set me up for the same problems I've created in cats in the past where once they weren't eating wet food, they NEVER wanted to eat it.
3) How much do other people's kittens eat in wet food in a meal? Is 1/8 a can as small as it feels to me? I do leave the bowls out for awhile, and sometimes someone will come along and eat more, but I have major suspicions that Harrison is eating out of everyone's bowls, and it's not Molly and Mango coming to decide on their own to eat their wet food...Harrison is definitely the chunkiest and at times I have to move bowls away bc he will keep eating.
4) What (other) high(er) quality wet foods might be worthwhile to try? I don't want to buy from Chewy right now as I always see that you have to buy in bulk, and until I find foods they like, it feels like a waste. I already have cans right now that are going to go to waste. So I'm a bit limited in what is carried at PetSmart, PetCo, PetValu.
Any advice is much appreciated. I don't want to give up getting everyone to be primarily wet food eaters, and if continuing to just offer the wet food often is going to ultimately cause them to get with the program, I'll keep on with it and hide the receipts from PetSmart from my husband, ha ha. But if my methods are going to continue to fall flat, I'm all for trying something different.
We adopted a litter of 4 kittens from the shelter 5 weeks ago. They are around 16-17 weeks currently. There are 3 boys; Hamilton, Harrison & Mango, and one girl, Molly.
I have had cats before, and did not do a great job at feeding them the appropriate food -- I was younger and poorer and clueless and just left dry food out. So they all happily became dry food addicts and despite great efforts when they were older, I could never get them to switch. Later in life we dealt with kidney disease, diabetes, pancreatitis, cancer, etc. -- all situations that may have at least been exacerbated by my cats poor diet -- and certainly to get meds and proper nutrition while they were sick was tricky since they refused to eat anything wet.
So -- with these kittens I really am motivated to get them eating wet from the start. I also hoped they would tolerate a variety of wet from the start. They ate purina pro plan wet and dry at the shelter, so I got a supply of that as well as a variety of other wet foods. I tried to get decent quality/decently nutritious wet food -- I get overwhelmed every time I try to sort through the Pierson (?) chart -- add to that knowing that kittens should only get 'kitten' food or food appropriate for all life stages, so I have spent a lot of time at Petsmart looking at cat food labels and trying to pick well.
For example, I have a bit of Instinct kitten as well as some of their all life stages varieties, Wellness kitten, Wellness CORE kitten & the all life stages varieties as well, Koha, Hound & Gatos, Nutro Max, Nulo, Merrick...I'm sure there have been a few others I have tried.
My kittens are laughing at my efforts.
Two of them are actually pretty decent eaters with the wet foods -- Hamilton and Harrison will eat most of the flavors/brands we have tried -- some notable exceptions (Guineafowl went down like a wet balloon...). But Molly and Mango are picky picky picky. At this point, there is maybe one brand/flavor that I can be reasonably assured all will eat -- Purina Pro Plan kitten wet flaked (it's some tuna/oceanfish something). Molly might eat some wellness CORE kitten and maybe some Instinct kitten. Mango will only eat the Purina Pro plan flavor mentioned above, and then in desperation yesterday I bought some Fancy Feast kitten and he ate one flavor of that. At times Mango would show a little bit of interest if I sprinkled some FortiFlora on his wet food, but that 'trick' only lasted a handful of times.
Even when they eat the wet food, it is a SMALL amount. I break up the large cans into four portions, and Harrison is the only one who ever finishes the whole amount. Even when Molly and Mango eat the wet food, they may eat only half of their portion. So they are getting no where near the 'recommended' amount of wet food (according to the backs of the food cans!).
I started to feed them the wet food 4 times a day -- because they eat so little in one serving (and I know they have small tummies, but really -- to eat less than 1/8 can of cat food in one meal seems REALLY small) and I wanted to see if they would eat more if it was offered more frequently.
They are gaining weight appropriately. Molly is the smallest, but even she is not underweight enough to warrant any concern. But since I know Molly and Mango are getting no where near enough wet food, this means they are chowing down on the dry food. For dry food I leave out a small amount of Purina Pro Plan Kitten, mixed with Wellness CORE Kitten. They didn't like the latter on it's own AT ALL, so that's why I've been mixing it with the Pro Plan. That hasn't worked too well as they just pick the Pro Plan pieces out and eat those. So, when I've used up the CORE dry, I may find another brand to try.
I've tried really limiting the dry food to see if Molly and Mango were just not hungry enough to go for the wet food. It didn't help them eat the wet food, and just made them hungry. I don't leave a ton of dry food out, and if taking it away completely is appropriate, I will try that, but for kittens I'm worried that completely eliminating the food they DO like isn't necessarily going to make them go for the wet, but could hurt their little growing bodies.
If these were older/adult cats I'd be more of a hard ass on eliminating the dry food, but as they are babies, I am not sure if that's an appropriate option. Hence, me being here to ask people who know way more about this than I do!
I'm not terribly interested in making my own cat food or feeding them a raw diet. The former may be a possibility if I could make it in bulk batches, but even then the idea overwhelms me a bit. With family, jobs, activities, etc. sometimes it feels like cooking real food for us humans is hard, much less cooking for 4 kittens.
They are healthy and happy kittens. They had URI when we got them from the shelter, but that ultimately cleared up.
In summary of this very long post --
1) Should i feed Molly and Mango whatever wet food they want -- even if it's literally the same brand/flavor every meal -- and even if it's not the 'best' in terms of ingredients (i.e. Fancy Feast kitten?) Is ANY wet food better than none?
2) Should I stop pushing wet food on those two and just let them eat dry food if they want? Is it likely that they'd be willing to try wet food later on -- or would giving up the wet food now set me up for the same problems I've created in cats in the past where once they weren't eating wet food, they NEVER wanted to eat it.
3) How much do other people's kittens eat in wet food in a meal? Is 1/8 a can as small as it feels to me? I do leave the bowls out for awhile, and sometimes someone will come along and eat more, but I have major suspicions that Harrison is eating out of everyone's bowls, and it's not Molly and Mango coming to decide on their own to eat their wet food...Harrison is definitely the chunkiest and at times I have to move bowls away bc he will keep eating.
4) What (other) high(er) quality wet foods might be worthwhile to try? I don't want to buy from Chewy right now as I always see that you have to buy in bulk, and until I find foods they like, it feels like a waste. I already have cans right now that are going to go to waste. So I'm a bit limited in what is carried at PetSmart, PetCo, PetValu.
Any advice is much appreciated. I don't want to give up getting everyone to be primarily wet food eaters, and if continuing to just offer the wet food often is going to ultimately cause them to get with the program, I'll keep on with it and hide the receipts from PetSmart from my husband, ha ha. But if my methods are going to continue to fall flat, I'm all for trying something different.
When my girls were that age, they ate half a can of ff wet kitten food twice a day and were free fed dry kitten food (Purina) till they were about 6 months old. At that time, Mizu began filling up on dry food and avoiding wet. So I made some changes. I limited the amount of dry food to half a cup to share between them and eventually weened them down to 1/3 cup. I also placed the dry food out far apart from their wet meals. This stimulated her appetite at feeding time and avoided her from having a full belly of kibble. At one year, Mizu eats two servings of wet a day (variety of brands) and Raja eats Primal freeze dried raw/wet food. Both share a third of a cup of Tiki dry during the day that they rarely finish.
) is that the important number of the can's label is the kcal (calories per can). Cats need, according to what I've read, about 30 calories per pound per day. I've seen references to kittens needing more but I've not found a definitive number so I aim for around 50 calories per pound for the kitten. 
