Quality Kitten Food

Hi:

I am new to this site and have a question.  I  have a 13 week old Siamese kitten which I rescued at 4 weeks. I had started giving her Blue Wilderness grain free canned and dry kitten food which she ate for awhile. The problem is she wont eat it anymore because she has discovered my other cat's food (i have a 2 year old tabby and 2-1/2 year old siamese) and prefers it to hers. I have tried separating her in another room while the other two eat, but one of my cats is a grazer and likes to nibble on her food throughout the day. They are eating sheba canned, fancy feast appetizers and fancy feast dry food. Both are rescues and I had tried to transition them to grain free food, but they will not eat it. I wasted a lot of money trying different grain free foods for them and finally gave up. All of my previous cats have lived to the ages of 15-19 and they were fed 9-lives and fancy feast. That said, is it best to give her the grain free since it seems to be the healthier option and just hope she will eat it when she g ets hungry enough or transition her to a tastier low grain food? If anyone has any suggestions of high quality kitten food that i can try, I welcome them. Thanks for your input!

Darlene
 

Hello! 

I would wait for someone with a bit more knowledge on the subject, but I thing I know someone else will recommend is to get the one who free feeds and nibbles throughout the day, on a feeding schedule. This could possibly be really helpful and more healthy for you pet. 

Thanks Darcya, I have actually started taking the dish away from the free feeder because I am at work all day and my other cat winds up eating her food anyway and he is starting to gain a bit of weight.  The problem is the kitten wont eat the grain free food anymore.  I figured if I started her young she would not have a preference, but they are smarter than we think!

tish1112 said:

 The problem is the kitten wont eat the grain free food anymore.  I figured if I started her young she would not have a preference, but they are smarter than we think!

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Oh, they really are! 

You almost just have to out stubborn them!

www.catinfo.org might have some information that could be useful to you. It is mainly about feeding raw but it does have some other info that might pertain to your situation.

It isn't actually necessary for the kitten to be on kitten food. She just needs to eat frequently. Kitten food generally just contains more fat, they burn more calories due to all their energy and growing, but she can eat adult cat food if she gets enough of it. Sheba and Fancy Feast Classics are actually decent foods and grain free, they'd all be fine on those.

You can then work on working in more variety by adding a tiny bit of the new food to what they like, slowly (and I mean slooowwly) increasing the amount of the new, until they are completely on the new stuff. Do this with each new food. If they turn their nose up at it at any point, go back to the tiny amount and start over.

Thank you that was quite informative. I will definitely try that. So do you think the grain free is definitely the healthy choice? Also is feeding them dry food in between ok?

Grain free is good, but still watch the ingredients, as many grain frees are full of potato or other fillers equally not needed in a cats diet. Though a completely wet diet is better for cats, I also understand that not everyone can go that route. Some dry is certainly ok if it is high in protein and as low in carbs as you can provide for them.

Thanks.  I will check out the dry.  Someone had suggested Blue Buffalo Freedom.  i will read the ingredients on that.  Goodness, I am more concerned with what my cats eat than what i eat!   It's crazy!

tish1112 said:

Thanks.  I will check out the dry.  Someone had suggested Blue Buffalo Freedom.  i will read the ingredients on that.  Goodness, I am more concerned with what my cats eat than what i eat!   It's crazy!

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You should see my freezer! I just went to look for something to nibble on and thought...geesh...there's more food in here for the cats then myself!