Is Kirk's feeding routine okay? Should I mix dry kibbles?

kirk

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
41
Purraise
4
Location
Ontario, Canada
So we got Kirk a few weeks ago and he's about 11 weeks old. Right now I'm feeding him Nutrience All Natural Kitten, because that is what he was on at the pet store. I'm also feeding him Simply Nourish canned food. I bought 3 flavours of the canned food and each can lasts 4 days. So every 4 days he gets Chicken, Turkey or Lamb and Duck. 

I give him unlimited dry food and 1/4 can of wet food (5.5oz cans) a day. He doesn't eat all of the wet food, about 90% of it, which is why I don't give him more.

I don't really know much about cat nutrition, but I worked at a family run pet store before and we had to take pet nutrition courses. We were told that if cats are fed a certain protein source when they are kittens (such as chicken), that's all they will want to eat when they are adults. So, if that is true, should I be mixing dry kibbles together of different protein sources? 
 

franksmom

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
1,159
Purraise
34
The absolutely best thing you can feed a cat is grain free wet or a balanced raw diet. Cats are obligate carnivores and cannot digest grains and as a desert species they need to get moisture from their food. Dry food causes all kinds of issues from urinary tract infections to obesity. Here is a great site written by a vet on feline nutrition (http://catinfo.org). 

I have a kitten myself and they do need a lot of calories so I am not adverse to supplementing with some grain free dry or better yet dehydrated raw to make sure they get enough calories, but you want to get them used to eating as much wet or raw as possible. I only advise to give dry as a snack if need be. Cats do get used to foods if you only feed one kind, so it is best to get them used to different brands of wet and different textures.   Even if you do not want to feed raw now I think it is a good idea to get them used to the texture of raw meat in case you want to switch later. I give my kitten some commercial raw and I also will give her pieces of raw meat I am cooking as a treat to get her used to the texture. Chewing on raw meat is also good for their teeth.
 
Top