My kittens just started eating solids, what kind of food should I give them?

Question

Okay, so my cat had kittens about three weeks ago. Should they be eating this early? If so what should I feed them and are there any tips that you have on litter training also.

Answer 1

this is what i had to do for my kitten. put a little bit of kitten food in a bowl and pour a little bit of water in the bowl as well but just enough to soften the hard food so that way it is easier for them to eat it.

Answer 2

GREAT QUESTION!!!!   1st if the kitten show interest in solids let them have it, feed a high quality kitten food like Wellness or Royal Canin, I would start off with the canned and introduce the dry,

As far as litter box training goes, mom will show them what they need to do, make sure the box is short enough for the babies to get in and out of, if the kittens have a accident out side of the box, simply pick the poo up, ( with toilet paper of course ) and place it in the litter box, then place the kitten in the box with the poo, they will get the idea in no time, good luck

What kind of kittens do you have?  

Answer 3

My kitten began eating dry kitten food at 4 weeks.  Put the kittens in a small area with a box, cats naturally will want to bury after they go the bathroom.

Answer 4

dry food for teeth and egg yoke for the fur plus both are good for the health.

Answer 5

purina one for kittens, it gives them a lot of nutrition

Answer 6

Start them out on a high quality canned food, to give them the best chance at a lifetime of optimal health.

Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It's completely species inappropriate.

All small domestic cats descended from desert cats. In the wild, desert cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don't need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. Additionally water was usually not available to them in their desert climate. So they do not often drink water. Regular ol' house cats have descended from those same wild desert cats.

So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it needs from dry food and it’s almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it, but it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.

Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, allergies, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), bladder stones, kidney stones,  urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.

Overall,  wet is all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs… not our cats.

I recommend varying the diet with a constant rotation of accepted canned foods that your cat enjoys. If you do this, and allow your cat the same assortment they would have in nature when eating mice, bugs, birds and rabbits, your cats’ digestive system won't be so sensitive and you won't have to run around looking for a specific brand when your store is out. You will have a nice variety to choose from instead.

Canned foods I recommend for your rotation:

Nature's Variety - http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.la...

Wellness Grain Free Formula’s - http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/cat_welln...

By Nature Organics - http://www.bynaturepetfoods.com/productp...

Organix -  http://www.castorpolluxpet.com/store/org...

Evanger's Holistic Pheasant - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/20089...

Evanger's Organic Braised Chicken - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/50103...

Evanger's Turkey & Butternut Squash - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/50111...

Answer 7

You should feed them a good, high quality wet food!

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild.

Some of the high end foods can be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness and Solid Gold. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)

Answer 8

they will follow the mommy cat when she use the litter box.keep it clean and smell good.the best solid food is kitten, not cat food

Answer 9

Wet food- the kittens must stay hydrated and so wet food is really the best for kittens and for mom