Best way to feed a new kitten?

I have a 14-15 week old kitten, he weighs about 3lbs 10oz. I wanted to feed him a combination of wet and dry food. At the moment, I'm free feeding Orijen Cat & Kitten food, and a small amount of Halo Spot's Stew canned food twice a day. I figured that because he's so young, I should let him eat as much as he wants. However, I want to know if there are more specific amounts I should be feeding him, and better brands. I know Orijen is a really high quality dry food, but it's a little pricey and I wanted comparable formulas that cost a little less to fall back on as well. Someone recommended Nulo, but I wanted a second opinion. As far as canned food, I've heard a lot of conflicting opinions and I'm not sure if I'm happy with Spot's Stew. I'd like some high-quality foods at both high and low price points. Ideally, is like to give him the best food available regardless of price, with a few options to fall back on at a lower price just in case money is ever tight. I really appreciate any input!

Hi @livvyliv42  Welcome to TCS.

As he is still a kitten it's fine to let him eat as much as he wants. However, to avoid weight gain problems in the future it would be better to give him his food at set times so that he gets used to eating on schedule rather than grazing all day. For now you can still give him wet twice a day, but why not have set times when you feed him the dry too? I wouldn't worry about feeding too large an amount, but leave down a bowl of dry for about 30 minutes and let him eat as much as he wants.

In the future if you do need to restrict his calorie intake you can measure the amount of food you give him at each meal time.

I'm in Asia, so don't know much about the brands available in the US. As a general rule, look for a food that contains more protein, less carbohydrate and doesn't have starchy fillers such as potatoes. 

Try to include as many brands and flavours as possible in your rotation. That way if his favourite food becomes too pricey or is unavailable you'll have plenty of other things to offer him.

Someone who knows more about brands available in your area will be online soon.

Spot's Stew tends to be mostly water with very litle actual food so I wouldn't feed that excluisvely. Many brands in gravy or sauce and the like tend to be almost all liquid with little food, both cans and pouches. The pate type foods are better since it's all food and you can make "gravy" by adding water to it and mushing it up a bit. It's fine to mix in non-pate foods on occasion

Whatever brands of food your kitten likes is fine. You don't need to buy the high end $2+ brands and some cats don't even like high end brands. Any food you can find in a chain pet store (Petco, etc ) is fine and its' ok to splurge on the higher end brands that are sold only at independent pet stores.  Even Fancy Feast and Friskies have some decent varities so don't rule out big brands that you can find at the supermarket and big box store. Sometimes stores like Wal Mart and Petsmart have their own generic version of what is basically Fancy Feast or Friskies and it costs less. A few that I know of: Special Kitty at WalMart, GrreatChoice at Petsmart, Companion at Stop and Shop supermarkets, President's Choice at Star Market / Shaw's.

You can look at these threads for more suggestions:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/312142/best-canned-cat-food-for-kittens

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/291497/best-canned-food-brand

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/316254/best-big-box-store-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/327692/cheapest-most-affordable-grain-free-or-healthiest-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272192/affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292890/4health-now-has-affordable-grain-free-wet-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/326475/affordable-dry-food-for-5-month-old-kitten

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/259019/best-kitten-dry-food

You can feed "adult" foods to a kitten. Many brands are formulated "for all life stages". You just need to feed more of the food to meet a kitten's need. Some poeple like to feed mainy kitten food and occasionally feed a can of "adult" food for the variety. Kitten food doesn't have much variety.

I've been feeding my kitten on Applaws dry kitten food but have been told that Acana is made by the same people and similar formula as Orijen but not as expensive. I live in the uk so don't know if they are available where you live.

The US has the Applaws tray and pouched foods but they are not complete balanced diets like they are in the UK.

I'm not famliar with Acana (don't feed dry food) but there are TCS threads with opinions on the brand: http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch?search=acana&type=35