My Two Kittens' Diet

[Artistwolf]

Hi! I just wanted to ask a quick question or two about what we feed our kittens. They're about 5 months old and they'll eat practically anything; not picky at all.
So in the morning we give them a 3-oz can of wet food and 1/3 of a cup of dry food (Merrick Purrfect Bistro grain-free Kitten).
At lunch we give them another third of a cup of dry.
At dinner we give them a 5.5 oz can of wet, and another 1/3 cup of dry. Sometimes they still act like they're hungry after eating this, but it should be enough food, right?
For the wet food, we feed mostly Fancy Feast in the morning but sometimes we'll buy a can of another variety that is on sale. My mom also sometimes buys Fine Feline (the Aldi brand) or the Publix brand. Are these brands okay to feed? Is it alright to vary the diet like this? We almost exclusively give them pate style although my mom did buy a couple cans of gravy lovers Fancy Feast, but i know that isn't as healthy so we probably won't be buying that again.
For the 5.5 oz cans, we received a bunch of cans of Blue Buffalo Indoor Chicken adult cat food from Petco as a mistake shipment that come with an order we made. After contacting petco, they told us to keep the food, so we've got a lot of that. We've been feeding them that quite often for dinner; is it bad to feed the kittens an adult wet cat food? As well as that, we've been buying whatever's on sale at Petco. We've so far gotten a couple cans of Halo, Natural Balance (I think it's that) and a couple other varieties. These are all expensive brands usually so I'm guessing that they're quite healthy? I have noticed some carrots and peas in some of them but I'm guessing a little bit of that is okay, right?
Basically, I've decided that giving them any wet at all is better than no wet, so I'm not really concerning myself with brands too much. Is that right? We need to make the food affordable for us, so the sale stuff is really awesome.
And I also wanted to know... is there any problem with switching wet food brands and flavors often? I know with dry food that gives them diarrhea, but I haven't noticed any ill effects from changing up the wet so often.
And any way to slow down a cat eating wet food? One of my kittens eats very quickly and as a result is very, er, gassy. It makes us all more reluctant to cuddle with him and it's generally not great for any of us. He's otherwise playful and acts normally, so I don't think it's so much a problem for him as it is for us. But obviously it'd be great if we could resolve the problem.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kieka]

Kittens are growing so they should be offered as much food as they want. Yours are at the age where you may want to regulate more but if they are acting hungry I would offer them a little more. Kittens should be eating kitten or all stages food because it has more fat and protein than just adult foods (usually, some adult only labeled have more). The occassional adult labeled food is not going to have a huge impact on your kittens but it should be avoided as their only food until they stop growing.

A variety in their diet is fine and often good. As to the specifics of the ones you are feeding as long as you aren't seeing grains, the meats are all named and no caragenne (sp?) it will work. Obviously, you want to go high protein and there are other priorities but those are the main three in my opinion. Vegtables are a highly debatable topic. Cats don't biologically need them but companies add them in all the time. Mostly for the people who are stuck on human biological needs. But also partially to increase vitamin and minerals without uaing supplements. Some carrot and peas (and most others) won't harm your cat so don't worry.

 

[Artistwolf]

Thank you! So is it okay to feed the dry kitten and then the wet adult food? Or should I really transition to totally kitten food in my wet food as well? The problem is that I can't really find any good kitten food in my price range. Fancy Feast kitten would work, but it has milk in it which I'm not sure I agree with. Is fancy Feast for adults only or for all life stages? I can't find it on the can.

Great! My foods do almost all have carrageenan but any non-carrageenan foods are price prohibitive. It's good to know that vegetables aren't too too bad though.

 

[Espalia]

Thank you! So is it okay to feed the dry kitten and then the wet adult food? Or should I really transition to totally kitten food in my wet food as well? The problem is that I can't really find any good kitten food in my price range. Fancy Feast kitten would work, but it has milk in it which I'm not sure I agree with. Is fancy Feast for adults only or for all life stages? I can't find it on the can.

Great! My foods do almost all have carrageenan but any non-carrageenan foods are price prohibitive. It's good to know that vegetables aren't too too bad though.

It’s okay to feed a little adult food, but canned food also keeps so you could save that Blue buffalo until they get a little older. I too have found it hard to find kitten-specific canned food, especially in stores. You are okay with an adult food as long as it’s high in protein and fat like Kieka said. I think 6% fat and 10-12% protein are pretty typical of kitten-specific wet foods so if the “adult food” has equal or more it shouldn’t be an issue.

If it’s possible for you to buy online amazon or chewy might give you more variety at affordable prices.

Carrageenan, unfortunately, is a very hard ingredient to avoid. If your kittens aren’t having any problems with their stool I wouldn’t worry about it too much if cost is a factor for you. Similarly, if their digestive tracts seem to tolerate the different foods, I think feeding them different brands often is actually better. The only trouble you would run into is diarrhea if their tummies aren’t used to the ingredients in a new food.