how soon can i change diet?

[jenny]

as u know, we pick up harvey on monday,

the breeder currently has him on jwb kitten, however, she keeps changing his diet because in her view it will make him less fussy when he is older. he has pretty much been on everything without problems.

now, putting that into consideration, how soon could i change his diet myself?
i think usually u are meant to wait a few months first, but as he has had so much variation into his diet, does that mean i can do it sooner?
the reason i ask is i would eventually like him on either burns kitten, natures menu or hilife kitten. havent quite decided yet, guess i will wait and see if he prefers wet or dry. i only today discovered hilife and im questioning if it is infact better than natures menu.

anyway, what are your thoughts?

[Fran]

A lot of kitten breeders give a variety of different foods to their kittens as they claim it makes them less 'fussy'. If I were you, i would be inclined to stick with the main food the kitten has been used to until he settles in with you, so that he doesn't have to go through too many changes all at once which may upset him. If I was then going to change his food, I would do it very gradually, adding a little of the new to the old and gradually increasing the new and reducing the old.

I don't really have any experience of Hi-life but I like (and so do my cats) Natures Menu very much :)

[jenny]

well when i visited the litter a few weeks ago, their main diet was royal canin. when i emailed the breeder a couple of days ago to make sure, she said they were on jwb kitten.

i wouldnt switch the food straight away, i'd probably let him settle for a couple of weeks first and then as u say change gradually over the course of a week or so.

i just dont want to keep him on jwb any longer than i have to :)

[Fran]

Out of interest, why don't you want to keep him on JWB? Mine are fed Royal Canin kitten and prior to that RC Babycat

[jenny]

well as good as jwb is, and i know alot of dog trainers think it is a decent food, but i still dont agree with the ingredient content. they still use meat and animal derivatives as their meat source.
whereas burns doesnt. neither does natures menu i think and hi life doesnt either.

[Fran]

they still use meat and animal derivatives as their meat source.
whereas burns doesnt. neither does natures menu i think and hi life doesnt either.


What do the others use as their 'meat source'? I haven't got any Nature's Menu in the house at the minute to check but I was under the impression that theirs was approx 70% pure meat

[borderdawn]

I have Fran, ingredients on back "chicken, Salmon and tuna" variety.

Chicken min 61%
Salmon min 6%
Tuna min 4%
Minerals
Derivatives of vegetable origin.
Various sugars.

"Beef and heart" variety.

Beef min 40%
Chicken min 31%
Minerals
Derivatives of vegetable origin
Various sugars.

[Fran]

I usually have the chicken and turkey one but the meat content will be similar I would imagine. That's one of the reason I like Nature's Menu so much because of the meat content :?

[borderdawn]

I usually have the chicken and turkey one but the meat content will be similar I would imagine. That's one of the reason I like Nature's Menu so much because of the meat content :?

Yep, me too.

[Soupie]

they still use meat and animal derivatives as their meat source.
whereas burns doesnt. neither does natures menu i think and hi life doesnt either.

But cats are carnivores - surely the best foods for them are those with relatively high meat percentages or have I missed the point :smt017 :smt102

[jenny]

yeh i wont buy anything where the meat ingredient isnt just 'chicken' or 'beef' for example, rather than derivatives.

i also find that jwb still lists and awful lot of ingredients that dont need to be there. burns is the only dry food i recommend to my dog training clients. jwb being 2nd if they cant.

and for wet its natures diet/menu all the way :D

i only noticed hilife yesterday and noticed their ingredients are as good as natures menu. at least the kitten one was anyway

[Soupie]

ah - sorry misunderstood you!

[alexgirl73]

I've used the HiLife in the past and found it to be a very good food. Saying that my 2 boys are fed bog standard whiskas and are very happy on that, both wet and dry. Teddie is being fed a combination of white fish and almo nature wet (and I know there is some concern over the fact that it is produced in Thailand), which I don't want to kep her on permanently, but at the moment it seems to be doing her some good!

[Fran]

Ah, I am with you now Jenny, I mis understood what you were saying :roll: