Best Brand of Kitten Food?

I just adopted a kitten a few days ago, and I want to make sure that I'm feeding him good food. He was a rescue and probably has been eatting less than ideal food up till now. What brands do you guys feed your kittens?

I fed mine (a recent, now gone to her forever home, foster -all my others were kittens many moons ago ) first, Chicken soup for the Kitten Lover's soul, then, when she was here for a while , she got a kitten food from Walmart called Maxximum (kitten formula), supplemented (as soon as she could reach the "adult table" ) with Felidae All Life Stages, Chicken and Rice formula. She did really well on all of them- I really couldn't tell a difference in her weight gain or her coat, etc. She liked the taste of the Maxximum the best, and it had better ingredients than the other WM kitten foods (first ingredient is chicken). I hope that gives you some choices in availability and price .

Best for the least money

Chn soup
Nutros Max
Premium edge

slightly higer
Solid gold
Nutros natural choice
Felidea
Califonia natural

Sky high but good
Natures Prairie
Some Eagle pack
Timberwolf

I feed my 4 kits Maximum kitten food and then Wellness wet food.They do really good on it.
I have asked at our Petsmart for the Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover, and they do not carry it.

I have only found Chicken Soup Kitten at Pet Supplies Plus- about 20 to 35 mins. from my house. That's when I started the Maxximum Kitten .

Thanks for the replies. I've been feeding the Maxximum kitten, I just wasn't sure if it was considered a good quality food. I know the ingrediants when I looked at them sounded good, it was just so cheap that I felt maybe there was something wrong with it. But I guess not if everyone's feeding it with no problems.

Originally Posted by sharky

Best for the least money
Chn soup
Nutros Max
Premium edge

slightly higer
Solid gold
Nutros natural choice
Felidea
Califonia natural

Sky high but good
Natures Prairie
Some Eagle pack
Timberwolf

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Sharky, just curious....why don't you have Innova or Innova Evo listed? It's my understanding that the Innova brand is the highest quality feline and canine food product (wet or dry) available (excepting raw, of course).

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Sharky, just curious....why don't you have Innova or Innova Evo listed? It's my understanding that the Innova brand is the highest quality feline and canine food product (wet or dry) available (excepting raw, of course).

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I forgot Innova( I am not recommending them right now till all formula changes are finished and I can see what it is then)... I DONT think it is the BEST as I DONT THINK there is a best IT is a BEST for each based on that animal...

EVO I love for dogs for cats I had bad trouble with wet and dry ( YMMV) ... I know a few with great experience with cat Evo ...


I feed one cat dry with wet and raw as she permitts ....

one cat raw and canned

the dog get s raw and very little canned

The cans come from ten different makers and are based on need and willness to eat

Originally Posted by sharky

EVO I love for dogs for cats I had bad trouble with wet and dry ( YMMV) ... I know a few with great experience with cat Evo ...

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If I understand you correctly, you like the Evo for dogs, but it caused problems when you fed it to your cats? What kind of problems, precisely? What does YMMV mean?

I'm only asking because I am feeding my rescued litter of kittens Innova Evo wet (twice a day) and dry (one cup per day for all four). I am NOT an experienced cat owner, but (like so many TCS people) I love these guys dearly and want to do the very best by them. I thought the Evo, while expensive, was the highest quality cat food on the market. Now I'm a bit nervous - I surely don't want to be the cause of problems for my little furkids down the line!

If it makes a difference, two of the kittens are girls and two are boys. I've seen lots of posts about crystals in the urine being a problem for male cats, but haven't quite figured out what causes them or what preventive measures are available (if it's even preventable). I think I remember you mentioning a high ash content in either the Innova or the Innova Evo in reference a previous UTI discussion?

Yes I like evo for dogs ... it seems better tolerated ... My cats the younger one had constant diarrea and the other vomitted ... YMMV your milage may very...

EVO is INCREDIBLY high in ash ... If you want a near raw food might I suggest Natures prarie Raw instinct .... EVO may work well for you if it does keep with it but if UTI issues show up I will help you find something else

The food s that help with UTI health often have corn gluten which acidifies the chicken common in high end pet foods or has things like cranberries .... The best ingrediant and having been tested I have found is Nutros Max adult and lite( kittens usually arent to prone)

I have too girls and the oldest at age 18 is giving me UTI issues for the first time , she always ate a food with corn gluten in it ( not that I knew ) ... she no longer gets dry she gets raw and wet and seems to need to be a low fish girl ... fish is a common UTI culprit

Maxximum isn't bad... I started my new cat Tribbles on Nutro Max kitten and she did great on it.. She was extremely underweight at first and she got right up to normal in no time it seemed and now two months later she looks great.. She's about six months now and she is integrated with the other cats so it is difficult now to keep the food separate so I have some kitten food set out still but I don't know who is eating it.. The last two kittens I had ate nutro max to start as well. I would not reccomend kitten chow or special kitty kitten or anything that has a lot of red dye in it.

Originally Posted by zak&rocky

Maxximum isn't bad... I started my new cat Tribbles on Nutro Max kitten and she did great on it.. She was extremely underweight at first and she got right up to normal in no time it seemed and now two months later she looks great.. She's about six months now and she is integrated with the other cats so it is difficult now to keep the food separate so I have some kitten food set out still but I don't know who is eating it..

The last two kittens I had ate nutro max to start as well. I would not reccomend kitten chow or special kitty kitten or anything that has a lot of red dye in it.

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I fed Blaze the Special Kitty when we first got her.She did really good on it.NO problems at all.
BUT< that was before I knew BETTER!!

Originally Posted by ClaireBear

Thanks for the replies. I've been feeding the Maxximum kitten, I just wasn't sure if it was considered a good quality food. I know the ingrediants when I looked at them sounded good, it was just so cheap that I felt maybe there was something wrong with it. But I guess not if everyone's feeding it with no problems.

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I thought the same thing too - I had to read the ingredients three times before I decided I would try it, just because it was so inexpensive ! I was reassured, however, when I read here that other people thought it was okay, too .

I know, I used to feed Zakk dry friskies and dry whiskas, plus got him addicted to junky wet cat food, though I'm convinced that some cats just won't eat the good wet stuff no matter what. Now that I've been on here I know what to avoid.

Originally Posted by sharky

Yes I like evo for dogs ... it seems better tolerated ... My cats the younger one had constant diarrea and the other vomitted ... YMMV your milage may very...EVO is INCREDIBLY high in ash ... If you want a near raw food might I suggest Natures prarie Raw instinct .... The food s that help with UTI health often have corn gluten which acidifies the chicken common in high end pet foods or has things like cranberries .... The best ingrediant and having been tested I have found is Nutros Max adult and lite( kittens usually arent to prone)... fish is a common UTI culprit

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Thanks for the reply, Sharky! I'm learning everything I can in preparation for migrating my kitties to a high-quality adult food when they're ready for it, and you've given me some good info here.

I have two kittens that I started out with the Nutro Natural Choice Complete for Kittens for about 2 months. I later found Premium Edge which is a lot better than the Nutro, at least for my kittens. I have noticed just 1 month of feeding them Premium Edge, their coats has become extremely soft and they shed less (they use to have flaky skin too that I found on their bed). I know premium edge has omega fatty acid which is food for their skin and coat as well as a healthy heart but I'm not sure whether Nutro has it. I believe premium edge contains no by-products, not sure about nutro. Few other premium food were mentioned in this posting but haven't tried them on my kittens so can't say anything yet about them. I wouldn't go for any "commercialized" brand like Iams or Purina brands as they all contain by-products (their second ingredient).

Originally Posted by MamaKitties

I have two kittens that I started out with the Nutro Natural Choice Complete for Kittens for about 2 months. I later found Premium Edge which is a lot better than the Nutro, at least for my kittens. I have noticed just 1 month of feeding them Premium Edge, their coats has become extremely soft and they shed less (they use to have flaky skin too that I found on their bed). I know premium edge has omega fatty acid which is food for their skin and coat as well as a healthy heart but I'm not sure whether Nutro has it. I believe premium edge contains no by-products, not sure about nutro. Few other premium food were mentioned in this posting but haven't tried them on my kittens so can't say anything yet about them. I wouldn't go for any "commercialized" brand like Iams or Purina brands as they all contain by-products (their second ingredient).

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Premium edge has the same Fatty acid as Nutro Max less than Natural choice... Premium edge makes a great kitten food I personally wasnt thrilled with the adult .... So mine went to Nutro( no by products no grd corn) which I found has less grains and extras ...lol.. she has an allergy to corn so I am now with Felidea chn and rice

Originally Posted by sharky

Premium edge has the same Fatty acid as Nutro Max less than Natural choice... Premium edge makes a great kitten food I personally wasnt thrilled with the adult .... So mine went to Nutro( no by products no grd corn) which I found has less grains and extras ...lol.. she has an allergy to corn so I am now with Felidea chn and rice

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Is there a reason as to why you felt the adult premium edge wasn't good? I'm debating on switching to Natural Balance sometime mid next year when they turn 1. I'm trying to give them more fiber than what the dry food offer right now but it seems like Natural Balance fiber is at 3% versus the premium edge hairball control at 8%. It seems like natural balance does offer a reduced calories formula since I'm concern about one of my cat being a bit on the overweight side. Fiber factor may not be the biggest concern since I give them fresh wheat grass to eat.