Thinking of adding dry food

Okay, so I know dry food has a horrible reputation, and I know it can cause problems, but I can't afford to feed these kittens the amount of wetfood they seem to require. They're growing, they're active, and they're hungry. Right now they're getting I/D but I'm going to switch to something else (going to give Wellness a try). However, I've been considering adding in a dry food (namely orijen) so they're not meowing in "starvation" (they're not actually starving, they each get a can and a half a day). Is this a good idea? I was going to give the Orijen cat and kitten which is not entirely fish-based. I'm at my wits (and wallets) end.

If you want to feed dry food, I'd suggest getting one that's grain free (Buffalo Blue or Wellness, check the ingredients!) I am not sure about Orijen as I've never seen it

A cat should have wet food for about 80% of their diet. With me, I give about 1/4th of a cup of dry food each mid-day 2-3 times a week if I am working double jobs and if I am running low on wet, I'd give it to them for breakfast. Wet food at nights only as it digests much more slowly and keeps them fuller during the night!

I've also considered Wellness Core, since it was one the vet recommended.  Here's a link to the orijen: http://www.orijen.ca/blog/products/dry-cat-food/cat-kitten/
 

I understand it can be pretty expensive and time consuming to feed kittens. One thing that would help with costs is a home made diet. I myself have been spending way too much feeding my two cats and one dog an all premium canned diet and I am lowering my costs by incorporating homemade food and the primal freeze dried nuggets which are actually pretty reasonably priced. 

I would still recommend feeding them as much wet as you can but if you have to supplement with a bit of dry I would recommend the nature's variety limited ingredient dry foods. I used to feed my cat orijen but I think the high amount of fish aggravated his GI issues and he did much better on the Nature's Variety LID, which I used to transition him to wet and I still sometimes give as a treat or as a supplement if they haven't eaten enough during the day. 

I do usually give some dry to kittens. . .it's SO hard to keep them full with just canned/raw! Bottomless pits, like teenage boys :lol3:. I agree that Orijen has a lot of fish, even the non-fish flavor. Maybe mix a couple brands or rotate to minimize the fish content?

I got them the Nature's Variety Limited Ingredient, and when I got home I gave them eat half a can of I/D and then filled a bowl with the dry for them to pick at, well they ate almost the entire bowl of dry, and had the SO not picked the bowl up, they would have eaten the WHOLE THING!! Is this normal? is it safe to let them "gorge" themselves like that?

NullEntropy said:

I got them the Nature's Variety Limited Ingredient, and when I got home I gave them eat half a can of I/D and then filled a bowl with the dry for them to pick at, well they ate almost the entire bowl of dry, and had the SO not picked the bowl up, they would have eaten the WHOLE THING!! Is this normal? is it safe to let them "gorge" themselves like that?

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Dry food is very addictive and for sure they will gorge themselves. Before I converted Frank to wet food I used to have to leave out some dry for him to eat because he was off food and I needed to get calories in him and Ava, the kitten, would run up and gorge herself on dry food and then would not want to eat wet. What I do now if I do ever give them dry is I leave it to the last feeding and only give them a measured amount. The nature's variety is high in calories (436 per cup for the turkey) so you do not have to feed them a lot. 

Franksmom said:

Dry food is very addictive and for sure they will gorge themselves. Before I converted Frank to wet food I used to have to leave out some dry for him to eat because he was off food and I needed to get calories in him and Ava, the kitten, would run up and gorge herself on dry food and then would not want to eat wet. What I do now if I do ever give them dry is I leave it to the last feeding and only give them a measured amount. The nature's variety is high in calories (436 per cup for the turkey) so you do not have to feed them a lot. 

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Is it safe to leave dry food out during the day then? They seem so hungry all the time, I can't imagine them turning down wet food. I was planning on leaving the dry food out for them so they can snuggle with me at night without meowing and waking me to feed them. Is this not possible?

NullEntropy said:

Is it safe to leave dry food out during the day then? They seem so hungry all the time, I can't imagine them turning down wet food. I was planning on leaving the dry food out for them so they can snuggle with me at night without meowing and waking me to feed them. Is this not possible?

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I would not advise it they can easily develop an addiction and just want to eat dry. Dry food really should not make up more than 50 percent of their diet and if you leave it out for them all the time it could make up too much of their diet. Since the nature's variety is also so high in calories it really is not a great idea to free feed them- this will just start bad habits and can lead to feline obesity which is very common in cats fed a dry diet (http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity). I would give them a good play session at night and give them a big meal and let them have some of the dry food before bed and that should help them stay asleep. 

Franksmom said:

I would not advise it they can easily develop an addiction and just want to eat dry. Dry food really should not make up more than 50 percent of their diet and if you leave it out for them all the time it could make up too much of their diet. Since the nature's variety is also so high in calories it really is not a great idea to free feed them- this will just start bad habits and can lead to feline obesity which is very common in cats fed a dry diet (http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity). I would give them a good play session at night and give them a big meal and let them have some of the dry food before bed and that should help them stay asleep. 

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What about when I'm gone for 10 hours a day?

NullEntropy said:

What about when I'm gone for 10 hours a day?

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Yeah it is fine to leave out sometimes in those types of situations just make sure it is a measured amount so they do not overeat 

Franksmom said:

Yeah it is fine to leave out sometimes in those types of situations just make sure it is a measured amount so they do not overeat 

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Everything I've read, (and heard) says it's not possible to overfeed kittens. Is this wrong?

I think it is possible to overfeed dry food because it dehydrates them and has a lot of calories. There are feeding guides on every bag of food and I would not advise giving them more dry than the recommend amount for their age. Just as children are having obesity issues today because of highly processed foods kittens could also become too fat if they eat too much of a processed diet. I think the bulk of their diet should be wet, raw or homemade and dry can be the supplement so I would not give them more than half a cup each of the dry (that is over 200 calories to compare a 3oz can of food is between 60-80 calories)

So if they get 6 oz of wet food a day (each) and appx 1c of dry to share between them. that should be okay, right? I mean they're very active.
 

It depends on the wet food, what are the feeding recommendations for kittens? I would say generally that should be more than enough food for kittens but for sure check the guide.

I went on the nature's variety website and checked using their feeding guide for a kitten the LID Instinct kibble ( if you want 25% of diet): would be 1/4 cups and Instinct cans (75% of diet): would be 6.6 oz. You can play around with their calculator and even add raw into the mix to see how much of each to feed (http://www.naturesvariety.com/feedguide). If you use a different kind of canned food check how the calorie count compares with the nature's variety canned food. 

Right now I'm feeding a mix of I/D and Wellness Turkey. If they don't get diarrhea on the Wellness, I'll stick with that.