Royal Canin Baby Cat Instinctive?

Forgive me if this has been posted previously, I am new here.

I am looking for information on feeding about a 5 week old kitten. 

The history is that a woman sold us a kitten that we thought was 6 weeks old (which I thought was too young as it was). She was not eating and took her to the vet the day after we got her only to find out she was more like 3 1/2 - 4 weeks old. I could not believe it. 

So, they gave me information on feeding an orphan kitten and she has been doing well. She was 10 ounces when we went to the vet, she had to have iv fluids because she was dehydrated. I have been feeding her from a syringe GNC brand kitten milk and she can now lap that up herself and can eat wet food by herself now (yay). I still give her the syringe to appease her. She is using the litter box on her own now also and I no longer have to stimulate her to go.

So, the wet food is my question. I bought Royal Canin Baby Cat instinctive which she likes a lot. However, I really want to make sure I am feeding her a high quality food. Any suggestions?

The vet had given me AD critical care to feed her when I was teaching her to eat on her own because it tastes good apparently and it would put some weight on her. She is growing and doing well. 

Thanks for any information.

Cindy

So, the wet food is my question. I bought Royal Canin Baby Cat instinctive which she likes a lot. However, I really want to make sure I am feeding her a high quality food. Any suggestions?

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I don't have a lot of information, but that was the food my kitten was fed while she was in foster care. I did switch her off of it though.

The first three ingredients aren't that bad. (Water sufficient for processing, chicken, chicken liver.) Compared to other foods, those aren't that bad. However wheat and rice are pretty high on the list, but your opinion about those ingredients could differ from mine.

Hope this helped in some way or another!

You can feed kittens any food that is labeled as all life stages. You want high animal protein/high fat for kittens. Low to no carbs (i.e. grains, starches, fruits or veggies). Some brands you may want to look at are EVO, Hound & Gatos, Nature's Variety, Wellness. There's also a great chart on www.catinfo.org that compares the protein/fat/carb content of most common canned foods in the US. The site which is written by a vet also has a lot of great info on feline nutrition and related health issues.

I have fed my kittens Royal Canin baby cat in the past.  It's one of the better kitten foods out there.  We used to rotate RC and Wellness kitten canned.  Then we added Innova EVO Cat & Kitten, which is what we finally settled on when the kitten was about 5 months old.  I think at this stage of the game the RC is fine. I like the smaller kibble for the kittens in the RC kitten dry food, too.  It's so much easier for them to eat it. 
 

I like Fancy Feast kitten. The ingredients are better than regular FF, and it's a lot higher in fat and calories so they don't need to eat as much. BabyCat is OK, too, but has more grains.

I've been giving my kitten RC since I've got her 10 days ago. Yeah it has grains, but there hasn't been any problems except stinky poo (which may be from her deworming meds). If you already bought it, stick with it. Also, amazon.com sells it for $30.94 for 24 cans, which is about $1.29 per can. Which is $0.40 cheaper than petsmart.

RC Babycat is  a pretty decent  food.   If she likes it,  I would stick with it  for now .   As far as comparative quality of commercial cat food,  I could see ranking the canned Babycat as upper-middle quality or the lower end of high quality.     It's higher carb than ideal,  but not horrible compared to some alternatives.   It's got some corn and rice but not a huge amount.   the carbohydrate is 10% of calories.   I would try to stay with foods no higher than that.  and preferably later start to include some foods that are lower carb.  

I would rather do without the wheat gluten ,  but I think it's a quite small amount of the protein coming from plant sources. 

 At this point I would probably stay with the Babycat that she is liking.  but  in a few weeks,  you could  try rotating some other foods,  choosing  mostly various kinds of poultry  or rabbit.   For example  it would be fine to use Wellness chicken or turkey.   Those are both just as high calorie ( actually slightly higher) as the Hill's a/d  you got from the vet.    Or Merrick's chicken,  turkey or duck paté .  Or Hounds & Gatos , for example the rabbit & duck liver.     or Nature's Variety Instinct, but those are a bit chunkier.  One that is pretty chunky is the Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie that's  around 8% carb  but lower than the Babycat.  and it's a bit higher protein which I like.  

When you introduce a new food,  at first just mix a little in,  just like 25% new food..  to give her digestive system time to get used to it.   then after a day or two ,  if all is well,  go to 50%.    It is OK  to keep canned food covered and refrigerated for several days  . If you take it from the can and store in a covered glass dish,  i have heard it will keep a week.  but I haven't tried longer than 5 days.    If just putting the can in the fridge i would try to use within 2 days. .    

 Here's a direct link to that chart that Dr. Pierson put together with nutrient info  http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

 Go down to the end of the chart starting on page 30 ,  where she discusses various factors about cat food and cats' nutritional needs.   That will help you put things in perspective.   See also the main article on  the catinfo.org site.    

That is terrible that someone would sell such a young kitten. I would find out if there is a law  in the area you live against selling kittens that young,   and if so, you could  report the person.   Even 6 weeks would have been far too young  but at 3-4 weeks it was seriously risking the kitten's life   The fact that she lied about the age shows she KNEW it was wrong. 

That kitten is lucky she ended up with someone who took her to the vet,  found out about hand-raising a baby kitten and was willing and able to do it.  But some of the littermates may not have been so lucky and may have starved to death or died painfully of not being able to eliminate their waste without help.  Not to mention  selling them unvaccinated -- in fact, too young to be vaccinated -- puts them at higher risk of disease   

     I wish people could learn it is much better for the kittens to spend  at least 12 weeks with their mother and littermates.