is this food good?

So I adopted a kitten and got her yesterday. The woman who had her before me was feeding her purina kitten chow and she said she fed her some wet food from dollar general, which I believe was called everpet. I went there but didn't buy it, so at a loss I just picked up 2 cans of friskies and said I would figure out what better to fit her later.

Went to petco today to grab some toys for her and the lady there recommended some food to me and gave me 5 sample bags

It is Natural Balance and she told me to try the natural balance platefulls wet for so I brought 1 pouch of it.

Is this food good for my kitten? I really only want to feed her the best. 

Thank you in advance.

Catinfo.org is a good place to learn about proper diet for cats

I've never fed Natural Balance before but it's a decent brand, much better than Purina Kitten Chow. Petco has a pretty good selection of foods these days. Wellness is another good brand you can try. Ideally look for a brand that is grain-free.You don't need to feed an expensive premium brand.

Anything canned is better than dry food, IMO. The Friskies you bought is fine. Kittens pretty much will eat anything you give them.

How old is your kitten? The Natural Balance dry food is one of the hardest kibbles I have come across, so a young kitten might have difficulty chewing it up. I'm also not sure if the Natural Balance food is an all life stages food or not.

Personally, we feed everyone Nature's Variety Instinct dry and a combination of canned foods (NVI, Simply Nourish, Holistic Select, and the occasional Wellness) and Raw (Stella and Chewy's and Primal.)

I will note that the carb content in the NB Platefuls is very high, though I feed this to my cats on occasion.

There isn't one specific best food out there. It all depends on what you can afford. I am personally taking *baby steps* toward feeding raw. It is the most biologically appropriate food, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still apprehensive about it. (I haven't had any problems at all the times I had fed raw to my cats.)

I think if your kitten likes Friskies (feed pâtés only) and it doesn't cause her any problems, that would be fine to feed her.

meekzmilly said:

 
so would it be okay if I fed the natural balance dry food and just friskies wet food?

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its best to stick to wet food.  Even the worse wet food is better than dry.

Read the link that LTS3 shared.  It helped me a great deal in feeding my new kitten. 

Since you mention shopping at Petco I'd recommend  wet in Natural Choice , Wellness or Blue Buffalo.   They all have wet kitten food. 

My 2 picky eaters both like the Natural Balance pouches. I buy it by the case from Wag.com but thinking about it, I'm not sure why she would recommend them for a kitten unless she didn't know that you have a kitten? To my knowledge, the platefulls are for adult cats. You need kitten food or a food that is for all stages. Are you planning on feeding wet and dry food? Wet only? Nutro Natural Choice  makes a canned kitten food that Petco sells. Petsmart also sells the NNC line if you wanted to try a few cans. This is another kind that my 2 like very much. I don't know anything about Everpet but when you google Everpet cat food almost everything that comes up is about complaints and recalls. I'd avoid it. NNC is not the cheapest food out there but it's less expensive than some other brands and is quality food. I steer clear of the really cheap foods myself because I'd rather pay more for good quality food now then to pay more for vet bills later. My cats eat high quality canned food and their fur is thicker, softer and shinier than it was when I brought them home from the shelter. They were on Science Diet dry back then. You want a good quality food that is high in protein and low in carbs. If cost is an issue, many people here feed Fancy Feast classics line (pates), Sheba pates and Friskies pates. I don't feed these because the princesses won't eat them.

http://www.petco.com/product/121991/Nutro-Natural-Choice-Soft-Loaf-Recipe-Canned-Kitten-Food.aspx

Friskies pate is a decent choice if you are on a budget, but there are better brands if you can spend more.

The Natural Balance brand tends to be very high carb, so I would pick Friskies over the Natural Balance. If you can afford Natural Balance then there are foods that are the same price but lower in carbs.

CatPack said:

How old is your kitten? The Natural Balance dry food is one of the hardest kibbles I have come across, so a young kitten might have difficulty chewing it up. I'm also not sure if the Natural Balance food is an all life stages food or not.

Personally, we feed everyone Nature's Variety Instinct dry and a combination of canned foods (NVI, Simply Nourish, Holistic Select, and the occasional Wellness) and Raw (Stella and Chewy's and Primal.)

I will note that the carb content in the NB Platefuls is very high, though I feed this to my cats on occasion.

There isn't one specific best food out there. It all depends on what you can afford. I am personally taking *baby steps* toward feeding raw. It is the most biologically appropriate food, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still apprehensive about it. (I haven't had any problems at all the times I had fed raw to my cats.)

I think if your kitten likes Friskies (feed pâtés only) and it doesn't cause her any problems, that would be fine to feed her.

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She's about 19 weeks. I just got her yesterday and she is still getting used to her environment so honestly she hasn't ate much at all, but I also don't want to keep switching her food, I would like to get her used to one thing. I am not trying to but the most expensive food but I also want to feed her food that is good and healthy.

Lokhismom said:

 
its best to stick to wet food.  Even the worse wet food is better than dry.

Read the link that LTS3 shared.  It helped me a great deal in feeding my new kitten. 

Since you mention shopping at Petco I'd recommend  wet in Natural Choice , Wellness or Blue Buffalo.   They all have wet kitten food. 

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well my plan was to leave the dry food out and give wet food twice a day, in the morning and at night and of course the water out all day as well

I suggest keeping her on the kitten chow for a week or so while she is adjusting to her new home. You will then need to gradually transition her to the new food (sudden food changes can cause vomiting/diarrhea.)

I also suggest measuring out the daily allotment of dry, rather than free-feeding. This will help curtail any future weight issues. (5 months is the age I transition kittens to set feeding times...wet food 3 x a day with a measured amount of dry at night.)

For the price point, maybe check out Merrick. They make a Before Grain formula that is pretty good. (I order all my food from Chewy.com.)

Only thing is I can't feed 3 times a day. I work all day. I leave my house at 8 and get back at 3:45-4 and some days I go back out to go to class at night, that's why I had planned to just keep it out in case she gets hungry. Unless I feed as soon as I get home at 4 and then again at like 9.

meekzmilly said:

 
Only thing is I can't feed 3 times a day. I work all day. I leave my house at 8 and get back at 3:45-4 and some days I go back out to go to class at night, that's why I had planned to just keep it out in case she gets hungry. Unless I feed as soon as I get home at 4 and then again at like 9.

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I'm out of the house all day too.    I leave out a half a can 5.5 oz of wet food that way he has enough until I get home.    Some worry about leaving wet out but I don't really.   Besides I think my kitty probably eats most of it anyway before it sits there all day.    When I get home around 5pm I'll feed him more from the 5.5 oz can.    Later I'll feed him the rest of the can before I go to bed.     Since he's still a kitten I may feed him a bit more since I've read you want to feed kittens all they want until at least 1 yrs old. 

Here are a couple of links to articles on TCS which might help you work out which foods are best too:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/what-makes-the-best-canned-cat-food

With kittens this age I think it is better to leave some kibble / dry food for while you are out for longer periods as they do need regular feeding and rarely over eat so this is the safer alternative to not having access to food or food that has gone off.  Make sure to allow for any dry food that is eaten as your kitten gets older when you calculate daily food amounts you put out though.

Aren't the Natural Balance Platefuls geared toward indoor cats? That would make the pouches incomplete for a growing kitten.

meekzmilly said:

 
Only thing is I can't feed 3 times a day. I work all day. I leave my house at 8 and get back at 3:45-4 and some days I go back out to go to class at night, that's why I had planned to just keep it out in case she gets hungry. Unless I feed as soon as I get home at 4 and then again at like 9.

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Use a programmable timed feeder to provide mdultiple meals throughout the day Here's one that I've used before: http://store.petsafe.net/5-meal-timed-pet-feeder There are other similar feeeds you can buy at the pet store. The feeders can be used with dry or canned food.

Chromium Blues said:

 
Aren't the Natural Balance Platefuls geared toward indoor cats? That would make the pouches incomplete for a growing kitten.

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Some of them are labeled that they are but not all of them. I think that all do say that they are for adult cats though, not all stages.