Need help- weaning my kitten, need good food choice.

Hi everyone

My precious kitten has reached 6 weeks age, and i started slowly weaning her.

My vet suggested that with reducing the amounts of formula, i introduce both wet and dry food, so she won't be too picky later. 

I went to one of the local stores to pick some dry food, and he gave me a bag of "champion breed" for kittens, claiming it's not premium-grade, but it's very good.

A short google search has raised my doubts, seeing it's a generic k-mart brand.

Does anyone know if it's at least decent enough so i can use this bag before getting some better food? (for wet i give her fancy feast)

Though i am a bit budget restricted (university student, and this is a rescue kitten) i try to fork out as much as i can for her. Didn't fight for her life to have her getting sick from low quality products when she's finally a bit sturdier.

It's. . .not the worst food available :tongue2:. But it's pretty bad--I especially don't like the BHA. Maybe if you mix it 50/50 with something better? It's just a little 4-pound bag, right?

Yeah, 3.5lb bag, the bag says "kitten formulated" or whatever. I searched for any mention of grain or grain-free, found nothing.

I guess there's a reason that it only cost 9$~, though i specifically stated i'll pay more if this is not good enough.

I'll buy a bag of better food and mix it together until this bag is over, i guess.

Any recommendation for something good that won't make my wallet too sad?

You need to learn how to read an ingredient list in order to find a good food. Although it's a pretty good bet you won't find a decent dry food at K-Mart or the grocery store (most canned foods are OK, even the cheaper kind). Here are the ingredients I found for Champion Breed kitten food: Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (Preserved W/BHA and Citric Acid), Soybean Meal, Animal Digest, Ground Wheat, (. . .bunch of vitamins and minerals and coloring)

A critique: it does have a meat-based ingredient listed first, which is why I said it's not THE worst food out there. But by-product meal is a low-quality ingredient, basically all the nasty stuff cooked up in a vat and dried. Rice as the second ingredient means the meat content is pretty low. Corn gluten boosts protein level, but plant-based proteins aren't so great for cats :/. BHA is a known carcinogen. Soy is bad for cats, and, again, is a plant-based protein. Animal digest is added to make it taste good to cats, even though the ingredients are crummy. Wheat is a low-quality ingredient for a carnivore and is a common allergen. Artificial colorings are worse than you'd expect.

So, yeah, it's just not terrific. But, wow, they charged you $9 for 3.5 pounds?!?! That's a racket they got going. On the K-Mart site it's $3.69 for that size bag.

Are you in the U.S.? What kinds of stores do you have in the area? Petsmart, PetCo, Tractor Supply Co., small boutique pet food stores, etc.? Are you willing to order online? It's hard to make recommendations without knowing what's available to you.

Ideally, in a dry food, you want to see a named meat and named meat meal as the first 2 ingredients. Preferably another meat ingredient in the next 3 on the list. No corn, wheat, or soy. No artificial colors. No added sugar.


But. . .it's best to keep dry food to a minimum. Canned food is a lot better for cats, because they're desert animals who are designed to get their moisture from the flesh and blood of their prey, not from drinking water. And dry food is very dehydrating. Check out www.catinfo.org

I don't live in the U.S, so for prices- don't take the it as a comparison point. Everything is more expensive here, due to the need to import...

I read the list and saw there are only meat by-products there, but didn't know what is good or bad for the cat from all the other ingredients, this is my first cat, i'm still doing a lot of research...

About canned food- i'm going to mix the two from time to time, since i can't afford buying only canned food, i'm a university student, so the budget is tight. What i was thinking is wetting the dry food i give her, so part of the dehydration problem will be solved

But, it all comes down to the bottom line: which well known good brands can i look for which won't get me broke?

Though the prices here and in the u.s are not the same, what's cheaper there should be cheaper here etc.

Blue Buffalo Wilderness Kitten food (http://bluebuffalo.com/cat-food/wilderness-kitten) is pretty good and not super expensive at least in Canada and everything is also more expensive here too. 

Try to feed as much wet food as possible even cheap wet food is better than dry. You can also give her some raw meat too. 

I'll try to see if I can buy wet food in bulk, my kitty isn't picky about reheated food, so it should get things cheaper
Will also try to feed her the least dry food within my financial ability+the dry food she will consume will always be wet, i won't let her get used to completely dry food so she won't reject the moisturized dry food i give her.
Anyone heard about Friskies "Felix"? looks like canned food i can afford, and if the label is true, it's mostly tuna, cod fish, and meat.

Since I don't know what foods are available there I can't really make brand suggestions. But like I said, read the ingredient list and look for: a named meat and meat meal as the first and second ingredients (ie: "chicken, chicken meal"), no corn, wheat, or soy, and no artificial colors.

Try to limit fish-based canned foods. Too much fish isn't good for cats, and the non-fish flavors usually have fish in them anyway. Don't want to overdo it.

Ok, so I got a brand named chicopee, seems like it's well received locally, first on the least is poultry meal, and it also containd liver meal and fish meal.
That said, it contains corn and wheat, so the next bag of food will be something even better.
Well, at least this is something I can at least use...