New Kitten - Best food for her?

Hi Everyone, Very new cat owner here. Mittens (named by my children) is about seven weeks old and was found sheltering from the rain under a car so being a rescue cat we don't know what her diet was previously. The vet who we saw on Friday said dry food is fine but I also bought some tins of chicken and fish for her and I've been mixing the two. Everything happened so quickly I've only just begun to research the best food for kittens and cats and it seems dry isn't such a great idea. I didn't know as I knew someone who had two cats and they only ever fed them dry food. So my question what should I be feeding Mittens and how much and how often. She weighs a tiny one and half pounds! Thank you.

Wet food, preferably high quality, four to five times a day, as much as she wants.

Thanks. What brand do you recommend? It's difficult looking that up on the internet as there are so many advertisements. I would rather have recommendations. Thanks. 

I would feed her kitten food because she's young and needs the extra calories and protein. Brands like Wellness have kitten varieties I believe. There are a lot of "all life stages" wet food too, like Nature's Variety Instinct, Innova, EVO. There are so many possible good brands. I would concentrate on how much she's eating rather than picking out "the best" food. But go to a pet store that carries holistic brands and maybe try different brands to see what she likes.

molldee said:

I would feed her kitten food because she's young and needs the extra calories and protein. Brands like Wellness have kitten varieties I believe. There are a lot of "all life stages" wet food too, like Nature's Variety Instinct, Innova, EVO. There are so many possible good brands. I would concentrate on how much she's eating rather than picking out "the best" food. But go to a pet store that carries holistic brands and maybe try different brands to see what she likes.

Click to expand...

Yep. Worry about her getting as much food as she needs right now, and getting her comfortable with her new home; worry about the brand later. She needs to recover and grow into a strong fluffy cat.

For little kittens, I find that Fancy Feast Kitten food is good (it's better quality than the adult formulas, and is higher in calories and fat). Nutro and Royal Canin also have canned kitten foods but they cost more and are harder to find. I don't use kitten foods after 4 months or so, but at her age and size a kitten food would be better. I might even add some kitten milk replacer to her food for a couple weeks to make up for her early disadvantage.


ETA: but, are you in the US? You said "tins" instead of "cans" so I'm thinking not. I don't know about good brands in other countries.

Thank you. We are definitely in the US but I am English, hence the use of the word 'tins'. We got our green card recently which is why we have a little kitten. We didn't want to get a pet until we knew we could stay here. Our children decided the green card meant owning a pet

Oh good. Yeah, for starters just go to the grocery store/Walmart and pick up a few cans of Fancy Feast Kitten. I prefer the turkey flavor because too much fish isn't good for cats and I don't want to get them hooked at such a young age . She might eat a whole can in a day but don't be worried if she eats a bit less (but do feed her as much as she wants even if it's more!). But break it up into 4-5 meals a day at this age. As she gets older you can cut back on the number of meals, although most cats prefer 3 meals a day.

My favorite kitten foods are Wellness kitten, Innova EVO cat & kitten, or Royal Canin kitten.  Royal Canin makes a babycat dry formula that's good for young kitten as the pieces of kibble are small and perfect for little kitten mouths.  At that age, I'd feed a canned food serving 4 or 5 times a day and dry kibble 24/7.

Fancy Feast For kittens and Wellness kitten is what my kitten enjoys when it comes to kitten food, i would also suggest getting a kitten milk replacer.

Congrats on the new kitten, thats the same age I got my kitten at