Purina Kitten Chow a good food?

When I got my kitten a week ago, she was used to eating Purina Kitten Chow. Because of this, I just continued giving her it.

Is this a good food? Should I switch to something better?

Is the adult food equally good? What's the best type or is it just a matter of preference?

I've always been told that Kitten Chow is the best thing to feed kittens for the first year because of the vitamins, nutrients and extra fat in it to help them grow good and healthy.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do that with these two. When I got my girls two and a half years ago, I proceded to follow this rule but they couldn't handle it. They both had gastrointestinal troubles on it and were VERY gassy (ever seen an 8 week old kitten clear a room in seconds??? ) and uncomfortable. It turned out that my black cat Mischief, had worms inherited from her mother's milk and that was a huge part of her problem. Frosty, her sister, never got the worms, but she couldn't digest the Kitten Chow either. At about 3 months old, I finally switched them to softened adult dry food (Meow Mix which they still love to this day, except now it's with Hairball Control) and I added wet food to their diet. They've not had any more belly troubles since.

All in all, I think Kitten Chow IS the best thing to feed them ..... if they can handle it. I never did find out why my girls couldn't. It was the first time I've ever seen that.

She should definitely be eating kitten food, but Purina kitten chow has some gross ingredients.
http://www1.catchow.com/products_2.aspx if you go there and click "learn more" then click "ingredients" you can see what's in the food. (It was not cut and paste-able).
The first 4 ingredients are poultry bi-product meal, brewer's rice, corn gluten meal and soy flour. Cats are obligate carnivores and should be getting their food from a named (Ie chicken, turkey not poultry) meat source.

There are lots of higher quality foods out there, but you won't find them at the grocery store. Check a local pet food place or feed store.
I fed my foster Nutro Max Kitten and while it's not the BEST food you can get, it doesn't have bi-products.
Wellness Kitten and Innova Evo are both great foods. If you can, try giving your kitten canned food instead of dry, or give some of each. Wet food is better for cats as it has tons of moisture which they would be getting if they were eating prey.

Sharky is the resident food expert so hopefully she'll be along to give some advice.

Devlyn

I just went through doing a lot of research on cat and kitten food. I don't like Purina Kitten or Cat Chow at all, but that's my personal opinion. I chose to feed mine Felidae dry with Merrick Canned. Now, I do still have some Fancy Feast Canned on hand that I'm finishing up with. I would recommend reading through this forum, because you'll find a lot of posts on the topic of food. That will help you to make the right decision for you and your kitten.

I agree with Devlyn. Wet food is healthier for a cat than dry. If you feed both wet and dry and have a finicky eater, IMO it's more important to feed a healthy dry and a lesser quality wet if they won't eat a better wet.

Sharky is our resident food expert and can guide you, but if you do a search in this forum you'll find plenty of information on quality foods.

Sometimes it takes some experimenting with different kinds before we find the one our kitties will eat and/or not have a reaction to.

I look for low grain, NO BY-PRODUCTS food. At Sharky's suggestion, I just switched our cats to Orijen for dry food. It's a Canadian product so I'm not sure you can get it where you are.

My Ferris was being fed Purina kitten chow when I adopted him, and I got him off of that and onto Nutro kitten dry as soon as I was able to. It has better ingredients and gave my cats shiner, healthier coats.

Purina is good when you are feeding ferals, but for indoor pets I would go with a more premium, higher quality food.

There are much better kitten foods out there. I would recommend Royal Canin Kitten till the kitten is about 5-6 months old at the most. I don't believe in keeping them on kitten food after that time. They can be switch to adult foods then.

HELLO...

Purina is a food I wouldnt feed,Gingersmom said good for ferals .. I agree ..

I need to know what your budget for dry and wet food it ..wet is best if you can...

dry food for about 8lbs ( about 2cats worth)
under$10
under $15
,mmmmmmmmmmmmmm sorry this is my Zoeys contribution

under $20
under $25

I can find you a food that is better in all of those ranges so dont worry

Wet food

under $10 a month about 10-13 cans at 5.5 oz( this would be wet food about every other day 1/2 can each)

under $15
Under $20
Under $30
Wet is easier since some good wets are at the grocery store or walmart

OR GIVE me a combined amount willing to spend

Do you have access to a pet supermarket like Pteco or petsmart???
Do you have a small locally owned pets store??


CHN by products can be heads feet intestines

Corn is okay in moderation( ie not the top five ingrediants... corn gluten I allow higher but it serves a function )

BHT BHA chemical preservatives and the later is actually BANNED in many countries

artificial colors often trigger allergic reactions : common ones in pet food are Yellow 5, 6 ... Red 4, 40 ... green, blue

My kitten is about 8months old she is eating Purina kitten chow advanced nutrition, she loves it but I’m unsure if it is actually benefiting her. i want to change her food either ASAP to adult food or when she turns 1. I don’t know what brands are good. I am Canadian based. is IAMS proactive indoor health a good food? Is blue buffalo a good brand ( I have read it kills cats). I’m just not sure what ingredients to look for and what to turn down if anyone could help that would be a blessing.

Kitten Chow is okay if you're feeding barn cats and half of it might be eaten by raccoons and the mother is supplementing the diet with hunted prey.

She is a house cat, is it still okay? And do you know if IAMS proactive health indoor is a good food for indoor cats or would u recommend something else??

Purina Kitten Chow is middle of the road.
It's not the best but not the worst, either.

Casper eats Purina Cat Chow. That's just about all he'll eat.
When we adopted him, he would only eat Meow Mix...which is basically junk food for cats. He was an abandoned cat and the rescue people used Meow Mix to lure him in. Since he was food-insecure, once he got used to eating it, that's all he would eat. It took us months of trying different foods, some were pretty expensive, until he settled on Cat Chow. Now, that's Casper's favorite food and he won't eat anything else.

Ever since I was a kid, we fed Purina. My father bred hunting dogs and that's just about all they ate except for some occasional meat scraps. My first cat ate Purina Cat Chow for his entire life without problems.

Only one time have I ever seen a problem with pet food. I was about ten years old when our store of dog food got moldy.
We used to store dog food in a fifty gallon drum. Somehow, the lid got left off and the food got wet, causing mold to grow. The dogs got diarrhea and started throwing up. My father had to throw out the whole drum full of dog food and sterilize the drum but, once that was done, the dogs all got better. That's the only time in over fifty years that I have ever seen a problem.

Yes, there are better foods out there but many of them are more expensive. Most of that extra expense comes from marketing. Cats don't care about marketing but my wallet does. Casper likes Purina and he does well on it. I see no reason to change.

If your cat or kitten likes Purina, there's no reason to change unless you want to.

Performatrin ultra is a good Canadian brand. I feed Indy it and the vet said she has one of the softest shiniest coats she's seen on a cat.

You can only get it at pet valu though. It's for all lifestages I believe.

If you want to find out quality of different brands check out catfooddb.com