Wet food

I have been reading that you all like wet food as well as dry food. Should i be giving my kitten both? Like one in the morning and the other at night? What kind of wet food do you recommend? I was planning on starting her with nutro natural choice. She is being started out on solid food with Iams, but I was going to gradually switch her over. She is not with me yet because she is only 5 week old (today). I am picking her up in a week and a half and would like to have everything prepared.

I have a litter box for her, and I am going to get her food/water bowls in the next few days. I have some toys already and we are making her a scratching post when I go back home to my parents house for the summer (She is there in Austin and I am in Lubbock for school). I am sure there is stuff I am forgetting.

I figure when I go to get the kitten food I would get her litter too, but the only thing I know about litter is non clumping. Any specific brands?

Also, I will have another litter box or two outside of my room for my other cat who is older, what kind of litter would be better for him? I remember we used to use Scoop, but then he became more of an outdoor cat rather than indoor and stopped using the litter box. Lately (for the past few months) he has been going to the bathroom in the house and my parents "don't have time" take him to the vet so when I come home I am going to try and fix it... hopefully if my kitten and him get along I can take him back to school with me too so he can have the home he deserves. I am just worried about him escaping 6 hours away from "home" and trying to go back to Austin, and that he is declawed but prefers to be outside. He still brings home "presents" every now and then... a bird or a snake.

Oh ok wow that was a lot of stuff... I will stop rambling now.
~Jess

HI!
First off we will start with the food question: I feed all 5 of mine once daily-in the evenings. I give them both wet and dry-I feed 1/2 cup of the dry Iams and a spoonful of wet food just as a treat, but it is also good to place medicine in if needed. I think that switching to Nutro is okay but my preference is Iams. I am a vet tech of 6 years and have found in all the clients that come through the hospital the ones that look the best and are an ideal weight are always the ones on Iams. Secondly: your older kitty peeing in the house could be a BIG deal he/she may have a urinary tract infections, so even though your parents don't have time to take him to the vet, the longer you wait the worse it coulld be-even if it is behavioral. I am excited for you about your new kitten-very fun times lay ahead of you! I prefer the clumping litter that I get from Petco in 30 lbs. tubs that are refillable, it is cheap and works great! Good luck with your new kitten and let is see pictures as soon as you have him/her!

Hi and welcome. You will get almost as many answers as there are people here regarding food.

Best advice is to feed a good quality, no by-product food and a wet diet is really better for your kittie. I changed Bijou and Mika to a wet diet about 6 months ago but still give them about 1/2 cup of dry food for free-feeding throughout the day while we are not at home. They share a can of wet food in the morning and again at supper time. Mika actually prefers dry food and Bijou the wet which is great as he is a neutered male and wet food is better for preventing crystals.

As for kitty litter, I found that the clumping clay litter was too dusty and Bijou was sneezing when he used it as a baby. I also heard that the dust could collect in their lungs and from licking, form clumps and in some cases cause death so I immediately changed over to Swheat Scoop. After a couple months I found this to be much too dusty and again switched to World's Best Cat Litter and it's wonderful.

I'm not a big fan of Iams, so we feed Merricks wet and Royal Canin dry. Natural Balance, Nutro, Wellness are a couple of names for good quality wet food. If you do a search you will find MEGA information on food in this forum.

Also, if you feed a better quality food, the cats actually eat less as they are getting better nutrients.