Is Canned Soulistic Okay For Kittens?

[fiorya]

I have a picky 5-month-old who has rejected almost all the wet food I've offered her. (She prefers dry, but I'm trying to wean her off of that.) A couple weeks ago, I picked up some Soulistic chicken in gravy at Petco. She LOVES it. She'll eat almost all of it in one sitting.

But upon checking the label on the can, I realized that it is only meant for adult cats. So instead of feeding it to her regularly, I've been giving it to her as a snack every now and then.

Would it be okay to feed it regularly to her as a meal?

Or do you know of any similar products (shredded chicken in gravy) that are meant for kittens?

Thanks!

 

[cheesycats]

The main thing you wanna make sure of is the kitten is front a lot of calories. The reason that food is just adult food is it’s so low in calories. Otherwise it’s a wonderful food. One of the few that has almost no carbs and mostly protein. I feed it to my cats often. But as I said it doesn’t fill them up much. You could theoretically feed just that but you’d probably have to feed 4-6 cans a day if that’s all you were feeding to need how much calories your kitten needs in a day.
Other options I like are weruvas paw lickin chicken and tikis canned chicken food In the large blue can. Called puka laua or something. Tiki and weruva cans are a big bigger too so maybe that would be a better option.

 

[Neo_23]

I wouldn’t feed a food labelled for adults to a kitten as the main meal because it may not meet the nutritional requirements of kittens (e.g., high protein). To be on the safe side I would look for a food that is labelled for all life stages.

 

[LTS3]

If you bought more than a few cans, an entire meal once in awhile it's fine, IMO. Or return the unopened cans or give them to a shelter. Try to stick with "kitten" or "all life stages" food until your kitten is older and keep the "adult" foods to treats.

The company that makes Soulistic also makes the more premium brand Weruva. There are a few different lines within the brand. All are textured food in sauce or gravy or jelly. All are labelled as for all life stages. You'll find Weruva at independent pet stores and possibly a few smaller chains like Pet Supplies Plus.

 

[MeganLLB]

I think it's more important that dry food be labeled kitten or all life stages because its more concentrated. But I don't think it's as important for wet food. Kitten food only became a thing in the past few decades anyway

 

[fiorya]

I only give her food labeled for all life stages for her meals. She hasn't liked any of the kitten foods I've tried.

It seems to be difficult to find kitten/all-life-stages food that's NOT pate. She absolutely refuses to eat pate, of any flavor. I guess it's too mushy for her tastes.

I tried giving her Wellness Core and Natural Balance shredded/cuts, but she didn't like them, either.

I'm not sure which other brands offer shredded varieties for kittens. She does eat Canidae Pure and Canidae Under the Sun flaked varieties. But I don't want to feed her just Canidae. I'm hoping to rotate a few different brands.

 

[LTS3]

FWIW, I never fed my Aby kitten food. He's 7 years old now and healthy. The lack of kitten food didn't affect his growth.

I don't think there are any textured kitten foods in gravy It's probably just best to feed kitten pate foods for now and occasionally add in some "adult" or "all life stages" food that is textured in gravy. Give Weruva a try in your kitten's diet rotation. Or you can try one of those supplemental only / treat canned and pouched foods like Fancy Feast Broth or Applaws or Nature's Variety Instinct Healthy Cravings, adding a small amount to the pate food.

 

[lisahe]

fiorya , have you tried giving your kitten Nutro Natural Choice? They make several textured foods like minced chicken and turkey slices that do have gravy. They also have make "chunky loaf" pate foods. They're also fairly high in calories -- but very low in carbs -- so good for feeding to a kitten. And our cats love them!

 

[fiorya]

lisahe I'll have to try it out!

I just found a Royal Canin minced variety for kittens. It has some not-so-great ingredients (ie, corn and wheat gluten). But Iris seems to love it, and it's high in protein.

 

[lisahe]

lisahe I'll have to try it out!

I just found a Royal Canin minced variety for kittens. It has some not-so-great ingredients (ie, corn and wheat gluten). But Iris seems to love it, and it's high in protein.

Yes, maybe the Nutro will work for Iris so you can ditch the corn and wheat gluten in the Royal Canin! Nutro seems to be a very popular brand.

Another brand that might be worth a try is Bravo: they make some canned foods (site here) that have minced chunks of meat in gravy. The calories aren't super-high or dense but they're fairly average and the foods are labelled for all life stages. Our cats liked Bravo a lot, too, and the price is reasonable. (I don't feed them anymore because I'm not sure what I think about agar-agar as a thickener, though I would definitely feed that over lots of other ingredients, particularly corn or wheat. In the end, our cats generally prefer raw and homecooked food anyway, so that's the direction their menu has gone!)

Another one I just remembered, though our cats haven't tried them: Wellness makes several lines of food that are chunks or shreds with gravy. Most of them have ingredients I can't feed (potato) or don't like to feed our cats (carrageenan) but I'd sooner feed potato than wheat gluten if faced with that choice and I didn't have a cat who's sensitive to potato. Sad to say but there are lots of tradeoffs when choosing cat foods.

Anyway, good luck! I hope you find a nice variety of foods that Iris enjoys.

 

[fiorya]

lisahe Ooh, Bravo does look nice! The mussels are a bit iffy. My kitties don't seem to like them. But I definitely want to get some Nutro next time I go to the pet store.

Iris has tried the Wellness. I think she's 50/50 on it. Sometimes she wants it, sometimes she doesn't.

And yeah, it's so hard to find a good cat food, and one that a cat will actually eat. :/

 

[fiorya]

Update:

Finally found a few brands she likes! She'll eat Fancy Feast kitten turkey flavor and Canidae Pure turkey, even though they are both pate. And she still loves the Canidae Pure flaked. I still give her Soulistic and Purely FF as treats.

Hopefully I'll have something akin to a food rotation soon

 

[Yanaka]

I was going to suggest Fancy feast. It’s a little on the meh side quality-wise, but not so bad for the price!