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Is it important to give kitten food?

post #1 of 7
9/1/10 at 12:47am
Thread Starter 
Someone left a kitten (complete with a carrier,food, litter box, toys, catnip, a 'how to train your cat book' , and a note about why they couldn't keep him) on my grandma's doorstep this afternoon, in the middle of the day. It was just bizarre.

The note said that he's about 12 weeks old. It also said that he'd not yet been de-wormed or vaccinated (I got de-worming stuff from my vet, and then accidentally over-dosed him, leading to a 2AM emergency vet call ). He has fleas , so I flea treated him, and am praying like hell that my apartment doesn't get infested. I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow, too.

Anyway, my real question is: how important is it for a kitten to be on kitten food? I'm not necessarily planning to keep him, but if I do, I don't know how I'll be able to feed him separate kibble from my other two once I let him out of the room he's in. He's currently on Meow Mix kitten food (what the person who dropped him off was giving him), and she left two cans of 9 lives wet food.
I'm thinking about transitioning him over to the Taste of the Wild food that my cats are on, and supplement him with wet food. Is that a good plan? Do I need to get a kitten wet food? I bought some Wellness kitten wet food, but would really rather get something cheaper.

I've seen that recommendations are that kittens stay on kitten food for a year, but is that true? I switched my last cat over as soon as I got him, when he we also about 12 weeks. He had no problems.

TIA

PS- here's a picture of him. The note said his name was "Twinkie" but we don't like that, so we're trying to come up with something.
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post #2 of 7
9/1/10 at 6:24am
What a precious baby! At least whoever dropped him off left him where he would be cared for. Sorry I don't have any food advice for you, just wanted to keep this at the top so one of our resident experts will see it.
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post #3 of 7
9/1/10 at 7:26am
My gosh what a beautiful Red Boy. They took a chance dumping him like that, how lucky for him it was at a house where he will be taken care of.

I have a now 10 week old kitten who is eating Wellness canned grain free foods. I feed her as often as she will eat it, she wouldn't eat the Wellness kitten, and I am too much of a food snob to put her on some cheap kitten crud that probably doesn't have enough nutrition to make her thrive anyway..

The label says "food for cats" it does not say "food for adult cats only" nor does it say "food for adult cats and kittens"

I am not a kitten expert, but I'm thinking Queen Eva is going to do fine on the regular high quality cat food, she certainly is so far!
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post #4 of 7
9/1/10 at 10:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by otto View Post
My gosh what a beautiful Red Boy. They took a chance dumping him like that, how lucky for him it was at a house where he will be taken care of.

I have a now 10 week old kitten who is eating Wellness canned grain free foods. I feed her as often as she will eat it, she wouldn't eat the Wellness kitten, and I am too much of a food snob to put her on some cheap kitten crud that probably doesn't have enough nutrition to make her thrive anyway..

The label says "food for cats" it does not say "food for adult cats only" nor does it say "food for adult cats and kittens"

I am not a kitten expert, but I'm thinking Queen Eva is going to do fine on the regular high quality cat food, she certainly is so far!

They certainly did take a chance! We're thinking that maybe they left him at my grandma's because my mom has animal rights bumper stickers (One says "Don't shop at Petland, ask me why", and the other has something to do with animal cruelty), and she's frequently over there, so maybe the person saw them and figured the house was animal friendly.

I hear you about the cheap kitten crud- I actually had to drive to *4* different stores to find the stinking Meow Mix kitten food last night. I thought 'this is a long way to drive for corn and by-products', lol.

I'm just wondering if I can get away with a lower quality canned if I give a high quality kibble. I fed my old cat Meow Mix wholesome goodness for awhile, and I seem to remember thinking that that wasn't so bad, but I don't remember exactly what's in it. If we do keep him, I'm going to transition him off of wet food anyway (prob. after he's a year old). I know it's healthier for him, but I can't really afford the extra cost of it.

Here's another picture of him. I couldn't resist with the jacket, lol
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post #5 of 7
9/1/10 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BreaMarie View Post

I'm just wondering if I can get away with a lower quality canned
It is easier to make a decent wet food than make a decent dry food.
They dont need to fill up with a lot of cereals and such which are among other holding together the dry food.

This is another reason why wet foods tends to be better than dry foods.


The ridicolous thing is many manufacturers seems to think cereal is good for cats. Thus, one can see sometimes a wet food, which isnt bad although cheap - could even be labelled above average - but it does ALSO contains cereals... Curtains. grrr...



All toghether: Try to find a cheap but still decent wet food - and stick to it.
As your new cat apparently does eats wet. Mine boys they dont... Which is pity.

Do you perhaps have the swedish brand Bozita around? Here in sweden it is quite cheap - yet it is clearly in the above average segment. I know they are sold abroads too.


Look for a high percentage of animal contains - proteins and fat. And also a rather high percentage of fat!
So low contain of carbohydrates as possible - and of course - cereals are useful as fill up in dry food, but cats dont need them and not so useful as protein source either.
And much carbohydrates - is not good for cats.

These are the rules of thumb -
although the percentages looks different in dry an wet food...


good luck!
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post #6 of 7
9/5/10 at 5:28pm
Taste of the Wild is an all-life-stages food, so it should be fine. Most canned foods say "for cats and kittens" so any of those should be fine as well.
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post #7 of 7
9/5/10 at 6:16pm
We feed Tumbleweed, 16 weeks, EVO cat/kitten food. In a pinch, we've fed him Wellness grain free kitten food, but it's more expensive, makes his poops looser, and makes his poops SMELL...BAD! His fur is sooooooo soft, too. I think it's important to feed them a high quality kitten food for about 6-8 months. He does eat dry food, but we feed him TOTW and he doesn't eat much of that. He really prefers the wet food.
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