Kitten food help.. new cat owner.. brain hurts

I am a brand new cat owner with my first ever kitten. I have done too much research and don't know what to do. I know this is a common question in the forum but I would appreciate some further answers. I just would like some brand opinions and opinions on which is the lesser evil. 

She is a 14 week old devon rex and I have only had her for 6 days. I got the same food her breeder had her on so that she would settle in easily but have now done my research and not sure they are very good foods. She was eating fancy feast wet and purina pro plan dry. I know you should do your best to avoid dry but I work 8 hours a day so can't really come home to feed her a wet lunch. She has about 40 grams wet every 12 hours and maybe 20 grams dry through the day (is this a good amount?). The pet shop recommended Hollistic wet but that has cranberries and she doesn't seem to love it, she'll eat it but I can tell she'd rather not. I've now got Wellness wet for her to try (but that has cranberries too), and I also picked up an Advance because they have minimal ingredients which I thought looked pretty good:

chicken, pork, lamb, rice, gelling agents, minerals, vegetable oil, flavour, fish oil, vitamins, taurine, plant extracts, colouring agent 

Maybe weary of the "agents"?

She's also a bit sick already, sneezes quite regularly.. anywhere from 5-20 times a day and has a little bit gooey eyes/sniffles. Vet said it's a cat cold and has given Vibravet but I haven't seen much difference. I thought maybe if I got rid of the grains in her diet (pro plan, full of wheat/gluten/meal) it might help, so the dry foods replacements I thought were strong contenders are Nutro natural choice (but that has maize gluten as second ingredient) and Wellness (but that has 4 different cranberry ingredients).

Can someone please give me some thoughts/experiences of the above listed brands, your take on cranberries/lesser evils (I don't want her to slowly die from cranberry toxins but I also don't want her to have urinary issues)...and any other advice that might help. I'm sorry to bring up the same old topic and I know it's a hefty question so thank you so much. 

Hi, and welcome to TCS (and the wonderful world of cat ownership!)

There are so many different views about what constitutes a 'good' cat food. You can drive yourself crazy trying to find your way through the maze!

First of all, RELAX! Remember that most of the opinions on the internet are just that. There are no long term studies proving that one type of diet is better than another. Also, keep in mind that it doesn't matter how wonderful the food is - if the cat won't eat it it's useless. After all, it can't do any good from inside the tin.

We all have slightly differing views on what we are happy to feed our cats. The best approach is to work out which criteria are most important to you and then apply those to any possible foods. For example, my personal list was

• High meat content
• Named meat (i.e. 'chicken' as opposed to 'meat')
• No grain (though there is a tiny amount of rice in a couple of foods in my rotation)
• No beef or other large animal meat (simply because my girl can't handle beef, and I'd rather not take any chances. I wouldn't be so fussed otherwise)
• No gums or carrageenan (again, my girl get a tummy upset from guar gum, so I prefer not to take the risk. If this weren't the case, I wouldn't be so worried)
• Not too many extras/fillers in the form of veg and fruit - though some is fine. It all depends on the proportions

If I weren't in a position to afford the more premium foods, then I would definitely look at the unnamed meat foods and see how things went.

Dry food isn't evil, by any means - though like the wet foods, it varies in quality. To me there are two things to be aware of - firstly that dry food is far more likely to have a high grain content. I just make sure that meat is the first ingredient, and that carbs don't feature too high up the ingredients list (though having said that, my old boy loves the Royal Canin Urinary prescription kibble, and so that's what he gets. I just limit the quantity). The other drawback is the dryness of kibble. That needs to be compensated for by taking extra measures to keep the cat well hydrated.

I currently feed my old boy a diet of 80-90% wet to 20-10% dry. My girl gets a mix of wet and raw, with a little dry to keep her from stealing the prescription kibble. Both cats are thriving on this.

I'd also like to point out that, as a kid, we just didn't have the kind of knowledge/choice about cat food that we do now. All my childhood cats got a mix of canned food (mostly Whiskas) and kibble (Whiskas or Go Cat). They all thrived on this and mostly lived to a ripe old age (apart from a couple of AIDS cases).

I hope this has reassured you a bit. Trust yourself, and your kitten's tastebuds!

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Originally Posted by catrachel  

 I know you should do your best to avoid dry but I work 8 hours a day so can't really come home to feed her a wet lunch.

Click to expand...

Your best friend is a programmable timed feeder such as this one It's works great to provide a cat meals when you can't be home. You can use this type of feeder with canned food. Canned food won't spoil if left out all day. Some people freeze canned food into serving sized chunks and pop a frozen chunk into the feeder to slowly deforst and stay fresher longer.

You can leave some dry food out for snacking on. If dry is only a small aprt of the diet, then it's not a problem at all. Just be sure to add extra water to the canned. Freeze dried raw food may also be an alternative healthier option to regular dry food.