What type of cat food should I be feeding my kitten she is 9 weeks old.?

Question

What type of cat food should I be feeding my kitten she is 9 weeks old.?

Answer 1

i feed my cat felidae cat and kitten formula supplemented with non-ground raw meat

heres the website for the brand of kibble that i give my cat

www.canidae.com

edit

to the weirdo who gave me a thumbs down. raw meat is excellent for cats. do your research. it's the most natural food you can give them. cat's aren't humans and they have completely different digestive systems, deal with it

ok theres some person in this secton floating around giving people who feed high quality food low ratings.

Answer 2

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 pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. 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...

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

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. Four stars is a decent food, five stars is a great food, and six stars is an excellent food.)

Answer 3

You should feed her a grainless canned food, or later on after you've a chance to research how it's done, raw meat.  (If you'd like to learn more, let me know).

See the What to feed link for suggestions.  Note that with maybe one exception (Wellness), you won't find any "kitten" foods listed.  That's because these foods are suitable for all life stages.  That may be listed on the can or they may read "for cats and kittens."

Don't feel bad about not seeing the word "kitten" on the food.  It's mostly just marketing to make you feel better.

Answer 4

Feed her a premium kitten food from either a pet store or a vet. Grocery store cat food is junk... purina, whiskas, fancy feast and no name being the worst. Around the 8-10 month mark she should be ready for adult food, unless she is under-developed. Adding some canned food to her diet would also be good, since they quite often need it when they get older. If a cat isn't used to canned food, sometimes they won't eat it as adults, and this can be very frusterating when your cat has a medical condition which requires canned food :P

Answer 5

I use Blue Buffalo True Spa Select for Kittens, slightly pricey but 1st ingredient is deboned chicken.  No animal by-products, no gluten, blah blah.  It's just a very good natural food.  And if you go to the Blue Buffalo website they'll send a free sample.  Also my kittens love this stuff and my older cats on Wilderness formula to grow muscles not fat and they love both the kitten food (when it can be sneaked) and the Wilderness formula (and the kittens love the Wilderness too).  I've tried every quality kitten and cat food out there and my kittens respond best to this food and it's easy to put a little water w/ stir and it makes a natural gravy.  But Kitten food part is most important.

Answer 6

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

Feed a good quality kitten food (not a store brand).  Either canned or dry is fine.

Answer 8

She's ready for wet cat food supplemented with a good kitten food like Royal Canin kitten. Depending on her weight and appetite she can probably eat half a can of Fancy Feast in the morning and another half around noon. Many people put dry food out all day for kittens. I don't agree with that method and think they do better if you put out a half cup of dry food for them each day to compliment the fancy feast.

Read the can labels and get some advice from your vet to keep your kitty in top condition!