best food for kittens?

[JBalways2000]

i may be getting a pair of male 8 week old kittens on monday, and one thing im still not sure of is what food i should feed them? i shall obviously get in some of whatever they are being fed at the moment, but what are the best foods out there to feed kittens? should i feed them dry or wet? or a mixture of both?

also, with getting two kittens should i give them a seperate bowl to eat from, or would they share from the same bowl?(sorry if thats a silly question!)

any recommend any healthy treats for them too?

[alexgirl73]

Hi there. I personally would recommend a mixture of wet and dry. Give them a bowl of kibble to eat from when they want and at least 3 small meals of meat per day. I've been struggling to find a food my kittens can both eat, but before I go the one that caused all the troubl emy other two were always fed whiskas with no probs! Give them seperate bowls.

[Kim]

I think a mixture of wet & dry is good. I feed wet about 3 times a day and then they can 'graze' on the kibble. Make sure you feed a good quality kibble, I personally wouldn't feed go-cat or whiskas dry, I think Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved, nutro, etc are best. I think natures menu pouches are excellent as are their treats. I have 4 cats and they have 1 or 2 bowls, mainly because the dog steals their food so I don't put too much down at once! Never had a problem with this as they tend to eat at different times.

[JBalways2000]

Thankyou for your replies-i decided to take your advice and feed them a wet and dry diet. i bought the Nutro range-nutro complete care kitten dry food, and Nutro complete care pouch. i asked the lady what they were being fed on currently and it seems she is feeding them the same as their mother she said arthurs cat food(and made some excuse about them having strong stomachs and always stealing their mums food anyway ) so, would it be better to get them started straight onto the nutro kitten food? or should i get some arthurs in to wean them over to?

another thing i am worrying about is, how much should i feed them? i got them a split dish each so il put some of the dry food in one half for them to nibble at all day-though im not sure how much i should give of this? im also wondering how much wet food i should give them each a day? the pouches are 85g and say to feed a 1kg kitten 3 packs a day-does that sound right? obviously im not sure how much the boys weigh. also, im feeding kibble aswell, would i need to feed them as much wet food?

i was also told in the pet shop(not that they are the most reliable place to take advice from ) that i shouldnt need to brush their teeth aslong as they have dry food-surely that cant be true? especially if theyr having wet food aswell?

he also told me that most treats are too rich for kittens and to just stick with the normal food for now-how true is that? i did get a couple of packets of whiskers treats, just wondering whether to wait a while before giving them some

sorry for all the questions-just wanna get this right!

[Beausancy]

Hi,

We feed our kittens Royal Canin Kitten 34 and nothing else. The protein content in a good quality dry cat food is a lot higher than wet food. (If you look at the ingredients, in dry food it contains approximately 30% protein, whereas wet food will contain approximately 9% protein.) The advice that I was given by a very good friend who has been breeding cats for a long time, is to feed a good quality dry food. There are guide lines on the side of the packets as to how much you should feed them. Always make sure that they have plenty of fesh water available at all times - dont give them milk.

If you are not sure how much they weigh, when you take them to the Vets to have their jabs (if they havent already had them) they should be able to weigh them for you.

Separate food bowls is the best idea.

If you do decide to change their diet when you get them (whether it be to dry food or another brand of wet food) then introduce it slowly until they are "weened" onto the one that you prefer.

Let us know how things go.

[JBalways2000]

Thanks for that. so do you think it better to get some Arthurs cat food in to feed them at first, rather then put them straight onto the Nutro? id definately be slowly weaning them onto it without a doubt, if they were already on a kitten food. just worries me that they may have been eating adult food upto this point and i dont want it effecting their health. though i suppose a few extra days on it wont hurt while im weaning them.

a question on milk-i know not to feed cows milk, but i got some whiskas cat milk today and was wondering if anyone knows how much i should give them of this? it says on the bottle that you can get 4-5 servings out of it but its a tiny bottle(200mls) so i dont see how! am i supposed to mix it with water or something?

[Kim]

Hi again

I personally wouldn't give them the cat milk until they are a little older. Cats are often lactose intolerant which is why cows milk may upset them and although specially formulated milk is better it may still be a bit too rich for little tummies.

The nutro pouches are excellent, I bought some for my cats and impressed with the ingredients. I would give them the kitten variety and kibble and not worry about the Arthurs at all, the Arthurs may be too rich anyway and they will soon get used to the nutro. Others may disagree, so I suppose you have to decide what is best. Use the packets as a guide on how much to feed, but cats don't often over eat and so feed as much as they want. Until they have settled I personally wouldn't bother with treats yet either!

[Rosie]

I bought kitten food for Alfie but he had been brought up with ordinary cat food and sardines which he much preferred. I have been told by more than one vet that a totally "dry" menu can and often does lead to stones. It is only of recent years that there has been any such thing as kitten food and cat have been bred healthily for centuries. Just my opinion of course.

[Fran]

Hi there and congratulations on your new kittens!
Firstly, I would not just swap them off the food they are used to no matter how poor it is as they will almost certainly develop diarrhoea. You need to introduce any new food to them slowly and I would certainly let them settle in with you first as moving home is quite stressful for a young kitten without a change in diet too! I personally wouldn't feed any milk to them not even the specially formulated cat milk. Of course it is up to you but cats do not need milk in their diet and a lot of cats do not tolerate it well at all. Which kitten food you feed your kittens is down to your personal preference. I have raised kittens on Whiskas kitten meat and biscuits and they have been absolutely fine and grown well. My current kittens have Royal Canin kitten as that is what the breeders fed them and I am equally as pleased with the RC as I was with the Whiskas that I have used in the past. They both have wet food too but one of them has to have RC sensitive as she has a icky tummy.
I would be inclined to give them their own feeding and drinking bowls but you may find that they both prefer to share the same one
Finally, have loads of fun and enjoy them!

[calismum]

I too have fed whiskas kitten and Ekanuba without problem.

Only thing I would say is don't mix wet and dry in a split bowl as any time I've done this they either scratch the dry onto the wet or vice versa. Or, drop bits of wet onto dry.

If using split bowls put dry in one and the wet in the other.

Enjoy your new babes. My new kitten arrives end of month - can't wait!!

CM