Is this a complete diet for a kitten?

Hi Everyone, 

I had been feeding my 16 week old kitten a mixture of wet, dry and raw, but since reading the thread on Blue Buffalo Wilderness and possible renal failure I have decided today to stop feeding it to her. The reason I had been giving her the BB wilderness as a snack was because I was worried about her not getting enough nutrients and calories. The wet I feed is tiki cat and weruva and it is low in calories. The reason I feed this food is because it is the only kind my other cat will eat and they enjoy eating together. Combined throughout the day she probably eats about 3 oz of wet food. I also feed her whole animal patties and on the feeding instructions it says a kitten her size (almost 5 pounds) needs 3/8 of a patty and she probably eats close to that a day now. I am now just leaving out ziwi peak freeze dried raw (I had been mixing it with the BB) and she snacks on it throughout the day but it probably makes up for about 15% of her diet which is about the same as the BB. Do you think this is enough food/calories for a growing kitten? Should I add a safer dry food like orjiin to up the calories (apparently it is for kittens and cats)? The reason I didn't use orijjin for her before is because the breeder told me it was to low in magnesium- do you know if this is true?

If I read your post right, you are giving her the recommended amount of raw, plus more than half the recommended amount of wet, plus 15% of her diet in dry.

It seems to me like you should stick with one or the other.  You might be giving more than enough of certain elements and not enough of others. Does she seem to be healthy and frisky like a kitten should be?

I hope others will chime in and correct me if I am mis-informing you.

Actually from everything I have read it is recommended that you feed a variety of foods to kittens. I guess my major concern is the wet I feed her is low calorie, so that is why I was feeding her some of the BB kitten dry food to supplement. Now I have removed the BB kitten food she is not eating anything specifically formulated for kittens, so I worry she will not get enough fat and nutrients in her diet. I know foods labelled "kitten" is supposed to be just a marketing tool, but I guess I am paranoid. The raw I feed her is great but it also doesn't have any added vitamins or minerals in is just ground whole animal which according to the company has enough natural nutrients in it (but the wet and freeze dried raw do have added vitamins in them). Also some days she loves the raw and eats it really well and other days she is more into the wet food. 

She is super healthy and has gained 2 pounds in the last month (she was 3 pounds at 12 weeks and is now 5 pounds at 16 weeks). She just was at the vet for her rabies shot and he said her growth was perfect. 

I think what you're doing is fine. I think she is old enough that you can feed the all stages food which I think Tiki and Weruva both are. Since she's growing still, you want to give her as much food as she wants. If she's not acting hungry and gaining weight fine, I wouldn't worry about it. I think you've got a good mix going.

As far as feeding a variety of foods, my understanding is that you need to feed a variety of proteins rather than what state the food is in.

Kittens in the wild don't get special kitten mice . I never feed kitten food, except to tiny baby kittens. It's true that Tiki and Weruva are low-calorie, though, but I'm sure the raw and Ziwipeak will fill in the gaps. Both of those are more nutrient-dense than kibble or canned so she should be getting everything she needs.

Are the raw patties "complete and balanced" or just ground whole animal? If not supplemented, you might want to add some taurine, at least, because grinding degrades taurine and there may not be quite enough left in it.

Willowy said:

Kittens in the wild don't get special kitten mice

. I never feed kitten food, except to tiny baby kittens. It's true that Tiki and Weruva are low-calorie, though, but I'm sure the raw and Ziwipeak will fill in the gaps. Both of those are more nutrient-dense than kibble or canned so she should be getting everything she needs.

Are the raw patties "complete and balanced" or just ground whole animal? If not supplemented, you might want to add some taurine, at least, because grinding degrades taurine and there may not be quite enough left in it.

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Thanks so much for such an informative response! I know logically that kitten food is all a marketing tool but I always worry. The only so called complete and balanced (i.e. AAFCO certfied) certified raw food available is natures variety instinct and pets 4 life, both of which just add weird stuff like clay and flax seed and do not use a taurine supplements. I am feeding Carnivora (http://www.carnivora.ca/html/featured_products/fresh_frozen_products/index.cfm) they claim it is complete but never answered my email about if I should add taurine. Both the ziwipeak and tikicat have taurine, so should I still add some? I did buy the powder, so I can just sprinkle some on top of her food-I was thinking less than a teaspoon?

peaches08 said:

As far as feeding a variety of foods, my understanding is that you need to feed a variety of proteins rather than what state the food is in.

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Thanks for the response. I do feed a variety of proteins currently chicken, elk, bison and occasionally salmon in the tiki cat. The reason I want to feed different kinds of food is that she might not always be able to eat either all wet or all raw. I want to get her used to different textures so it will be easy when I travel for work ect. 

I live on an island, so I can understand the whole "sorry folks, hurricane coming so this is what we have for dinner" possibility! Mine eat only raw at the moment, but due to hairballs from marathon grooming sessions I have to give Temptations hairball treats occasionally. Thankfully most CVS and such sell Fancy Feast classics so I hope I'll be able to feed them that as a last resort.

As far as taurine, the food seems to be complete but yes you can add taurine. What your kitty doesn't use she'll just excrete in the litter box. I add more than the recommended amount of taurine to the homemade raw.

Carnivora is a very good food, it's just whole ground animal. For the taurine supplement, here's a sheet to help you figure out how much to add: http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-how-much-taurine-should-i-add

And yes, you can just sprinkle the daily amount on one meal of the food.