What type of WET food (and how much) to feed Kittens

Hello Everyone,

I must preface to say that I love this board and I've been reading a lot of great articles on cat health/nutrition as well as learning about the different types of foods out there. I must admit, I am pretty overwhelmed being very new to this. I read and fully endorse the information that Lisa Pierson has put out on cat food (dry vs. wet) (from catinfo) and have converted my kittens to 100% wet food yesterday (and threw out the Blue Buffalo dry food). I also want them to be on a good quality high protein, low carb diet for long-term health but I am very confused on what type of cat food to go with. There are people on here who don't recommend "carrageenan" as an ingredient or vitamin K3. So, I looked through the comparison chart (P/F/C) that Lisa Pierson has out and the ones that I found which are lowest in carbs/fats are Weruva and Tiki. The problem is that they are too low in fat and some people say on here that cats need fat, especially if they're kittens. However, when I look at the food ingredients of those that do have fat, they have the ingredients that we should avoid (carrageenan, vitamin K3). The other dilemma is that I don't how HOW much to feed my kittens. The instructions say "feed as much as they can eat"...but is that really a wise choice? One of my kittens LOVES food and he'll gobble up everything in front of him...I don't know if he knows or understands the feeling of "satiety". And, finally, since I'm converting my kittens to wet food, is it OK to leave it out until consumed, aka "free feeding"? Directions say to refrigerate after 30 minutes, some people say put down frozen meals and let them defrost, Lisa Pierson says it doesn't matter and it won't make cats sick because in the wild food is left out. So many conflicting sources!

So, here are my questions summed up to you:

1. How MUCH should I be feeding my kittens? Should I measure by calories or oz. cans? My kittens are 5 and 6 months old.

2. WHAT brand/type do you recommend for kittens, that is not too low in fat but has healthy ingredients? Also, do you recommend rotating foods? I'm also interested only in chicken, turkey, and rabbit (according to the reports I've read). I should mention that one of my kittens has a sensitive stomach and diarrhea for when I rotate foods. I'm thinking of getting a priobiotic to fix that.

3. Is it OK to leave wet food out during the day? I work from 7am-4pm M-F so I can only feed them in the morning and when I'm back home at night.

Finally, I am considering making raw food in the future, but I still need to research and buy the tools needed. In the meantime, I want to get them on a healthy commercial wet diet that I will stick to.

Thanks again for your help!

PS -- I should add that the vet has been UNHELPFUL in the nutrition department. Not surprising, huh?

Hi and welcome to TCS. It's great that you are learning about better nutrition for your obligate carnivores. That's what drew me to this site as well. As for your questions:

1. Because you have growing kittens, I would feed them as much as they want right now. At some point, around a year old, you can start figuring out how much food they need to maintain a healthy adult weight, but for now, I wouldn't worry about it.

2. I would recommend rotating foods for a variety of reasons (to prevent pickiness, risk of recalls/discontinued products/flavors, etc.). Rotating foods also provides them different nutritional profiles. For example, if you feed the lower fat Weruva and Tiki, if you combine that with higher fat foods like Hound & Gatos, EVO, Nature's Variety Instinct, you can get a better balanced overall nutritional profile. A good human grade probiotic (like the Natural Factors Double Strength Acidophilus/Bifidus) is great for gut health.

3. People have different views about how long wet food can be left out, but I've personally left out wet food for 10 hours without issues.

As you've probably found, there is no perfect commercial food. Sometimes, it's a matter of deciding what's most important to you and your cats. That's one of the reasons that some of us have turned to preparing cat food at home. It's just easier to control the ingredients and quality that way, but we all just do the best we can given our individual circumstances. Have you seen the stickied threads at the top of the Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food forum? They are a great resource for those who want to learn more about home-prepared foods.

In my case, I had grain-free dry food out all day in addition to feeding wet food twice daily until they were one year old. After that, I took away the dry food. This was the instruction I had from the rescue I got them from. I know it's super hard to determine what's best! Kittens are so awesome

I agree on letting them eat as much as they want until around a year. I feed grain free dry food to my cats but when they were kittens they got wet only. I made the change to dry due to,my 2 girls constant finickyness.

I got sick of taking cat food back to the store, and having them not eat what I bought. They eat the TOTW grain free without complaint.

My girls are good water drinkers so I don't worry too much about health issues.

Although if your kitties will eat wet only that's better for the moisture reason alone. If you have the time raw food is the best way to go. I don't know much about that though.

Thanks, vBall91. Your response is SUPER helpful and informative. I'm printing this page and all the responses I get as reference. Also, thanks for your warm welcome.

I'm glad I can put the weight/amount on the back burner for now. As for food, I will go ahead and order several brands.

Thanks for recommending a priobotic, I was going to go with FortiFlora, but if you think that helps, I'll stick with it. My kitty gets occasional diarrhea when I switch foods over, too, so hopefully what you recommended would help. Also, both of them have the kitty flu ;( or, otherwise known us "upper respiratory infection".

Thanks for the affirmation about leaving wet food out. I'm going to continue to do that.

I've read through some of the sticky notes, but haven't visited the "Raw & Cooked Cat Food" forum yet since I'm not prepared yet, but I WILL in the future for sure. I can see myself saving money and also helping my kitties in doing that.

Thanks again

Thanks, bigperm20. I love it when I see men on the boards! There's such a stigma about women being the only cat owners, and running into men at the cat section of Petco or other pet stores makes me happy

Hi NYCats, thanks for your advice. It is super hard with all the different advice!

You're so welcome! FYI, I fed my cats Wellness CORE kitten food. I tried several other brands, but they liked this one the best. When they became adults, I switched to other Wellness flavors as well as a few other brands. I try to alternate, so they won't get too finicky about flavors.

FirstTimeCatMom said:

Thanks, bigperm20. I love it when I see men on the boards! There's such a stigma about women being the only cat owners, and running into men at the cat section of Petco or other pet stores makes me happy

Click to expand...

There's actually a couple of men on the board that I know. I'm sure there are many more. However, there are definitely not as many men as women.

Growing up all of my male friends liked my cats but very few had them. I had dogs as a kid too. However, I have always owned a cat or two, except for a 10 year period in my late 20's to early 30's. I had a 17 year old kitty lose her battle with cancer and it messed my head up. I couldn't bring myself to replace her for a very long time.

I rescued my Oksana about 3 years ago and joined this site. I rescued Beans about a year later. I must say I've learned more about cats here than anywhere else. This site is a great resource.