What Do I Feed My Kitten?

[mudstainedcarpets]

I'm going to be adopting a kitten so I've been doing a ton of research to try to figure out what to feed it. I don't have a budget for the super expensive foods, so it would be great if I could find something really great for a good price. I know that wet foot is better than dry food, and that I should be feeding it kitten food for it's first year. I'm completely lost on what wet foods to get for a kitten though. I'm eyeing a brand called Whole Earth Farms and their Healthy Kitten Pate Recipe as of now but haven't heard too much about them so I'm a little unsure. Are kitten specific foods better than food made for all stages?

I've also been looking into adult cat foods and am wondering which ones I should transition my kitten into when it's time. I saw many people recommend Fancy Feast Classic and Sheba Pate as good and healthy budget friendly options. Also, there are a lot of positive reviews about Blue Buffalo so I looked into them too. While reading the ingredients for their Wilderness canned foods I noticed that potatoes, a carb product, is in one of the first few ingredients. Why is that?

 

[MarmaladeMama]

I'm not expert, but as far as I understand with wet food you don't have to feed a specific kitten formula. The portions for kittens are just adjusted. I fed Sheba Cuts to both of my cats even when my younger one was a kitten.

I currently get Canidae Pure Elements (?) chicken dry formula now that my kitten is over a year. I used to get Premium Edge, but Diamond discontinued it. The Diamond brand foods (Diamond Naturals and Taste of the Wild) are pretty affordable, but they're not great. Canidae is a little more expensive, and the bags are a little smaller.

They put carbs in pet food for filler. Potato is not a horrible carb though. It's better than corn gluten meal and some of the other ones you find in bargain brands.

 

[Summercats]

I look for sugar and grain free wet foods. I think I might have tried Whole Earth Farms as one of the organic brands I picked up in the US over Christmas. A smaller brand is not necessarily a bad thing.
I would use kitten food, as they tend to be higher in protein but a high protein good quality adult food should be fine.

 

[duckpond]

As the above have said a kitten food is not necessary, you can use an all stages food, however kitten food is often higher in protein and fat, lower in carbs, which is a good thing. And the kibble with dry is usually smaller, which for young kittens is good.

Wet food is great for all cats, they need moisture. However i am not against dry too. I feed two meals per day of wet, various brands. and leave a good low carb dry food out all or most of the time. with wet food i use a variety of brands and textures. Weruva, Tiki cat, Fussie cat, Earthborn, merrick back country, Rawz, Nutro, Nulo minced flavors, soulistic, fancy feast only the classics and some of the grilled, and friskies shreds are normally well liked by cats, a lot of cats like sheba as well. Dry food i use Dr. Elseys, and occasionally Farmina, orijen, Acana, merrick, Purina pro plan and Purina beyond, or crave. There are many foods out there to choose from, these are just the ones i am most familiar with. I check a lot of my foods on the cat food data base CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

As you can see i rotate between a lot of foods, i may go a bit overboard.. my cats don't have a problem with it, i like to do it in case something is discontinued, or out of stock, or a food company has a problem with a recipe, too much or little of something. Cats can get use to one food, brand or type, such as pate, or shreds, and if you cant find that food it may be hard to get them to eat anything else.

Cats need a high protein, moderate fat, and low carb food, as well as fresh water. I try to stay away from Carrageenan, agar-agar, spinach, potatoes, peas, corn, grains and fruits and vegetables as much as possible..very hard to do. many these days think grains are worse than the other carbs, im not so sure i agree, i try to stay away from all of it as much as i can. But i haven't really read anything that convinces me one is better or worse than the other.

Whole Earth is a well respected brand, they are a bit higher in carbs than i like to feed, but many cats do well with it Find as high protein, low carb as possible cat food or two that is in your budget, and that your cats like, and you guys should be fine. It can get so confusing with all the options and opinions out there these days

 

[LTS3]

Here are threads on affordable kitten foods:

Good Quality & Affordable Kitten Food?
Feeding Adult Food To A Kitten? / Friskies
best (hopefully affordable) canned food kitten???

It's ok to feed some dry food. Growing kittens need all the nutrition they can get.

Affordable dry food for 5 month old kitten
Best kitten dry food?
Suggestions for quality dry & wet food that is still affordable

"Adult" canned food can be fed but only if it is labeled as for all life stages, not for seniors or specific issues like urinary tract. Adult foods are available in a wider variety of proteins and textures than kitten food. You can rotate between kitten and "adult" food.

Healthy but affordable canned food
What is The Most Affordable and Economical Way to Buy Friskies Canned Cat Food?
New Affordable PetSmart Brand! =D
4health now has affordable grain-free wet food

 

[destinyz12]

I like feeding Whole Earth Farms wet food to my young adult cats, but I didn't feed it too much when they were kittens (including their kitten formulas) because all of their formulas tends to be low in calories, and kittens need a lot of calories. Other than that, I like their ingredients and my picky cats like it. Nutro soft loaf kitten formula was my favorite when they were younger, and they loved it too. Very healthy ingredients and decently high in calories. For dry food I fed Canidae Pure Elements chicken formula for a long time, but have started to phase it out because of the high calorie count and one of my cats is getting a bit chunky. I'm switching them to Merrick Duck & Turkey formula now.

 

[ArchyCat]

The few times I've had kittens, I would put out wet/canned food twice a day, plus keep kitten kibble out all the time. As other posters have noted, kittens are growing fast, plus they are hyper active, which also burns lots of calories. I keep dry food available all the time, even when the cats are adult, 1 year+ in age. Some large breeds of cats, such as Maine Coons continue to grow for upto four years. I have never had an overweight cat.