How soon can I switch foods?

We adopted 10 weeks old Fez yesterday from the Humane Society and was given a bag of kitten Science Diet since that's what they feed there.
He seems to be doing great. He has no fear what so ever. He spends most of the time in my daughters room that we set up for him with his new toys, bed, litter box, food and water etc...
I haven't seen my daughter much today since she has been hiding out with the kitty. Just kidding
In the morning, afternoon and night we have been bringing him downstairs for a few hours to interact with all of us. Myself, hubby, daughter, Shamie and toy poodle Skeeter. Our old guy Gus the pug has sniffed the kitty a few times and thats about it. He could care less. Skeeter on the other hand is in love with the kitty. He has been cleaning his face and playing ball with him. Shamie is curious but doesn't get too close that often. Mostly watches Fez play from a distance. He will creep up and sniff him and slink away to spy on him. LOL It's very cute to watch how different they are.
Once Fez goes back to the bedroom Shamie and Skeeter are back to running and chasing each other like mad men. It's almost like they know to be calmer around the baby. Even though they baby is a wild boy and so quick!
Anyways, sorry to get off topic about switching foods. I just love my fur kids so much, can you tell?
Ok, Shamie has been on Solid Gold canned and dry since I got him. I know Solid Gold doesn't make a "kitten" food so I'm still trying to figure out what to switch him to and when to start?
Since he is adjusting better than I thought he would, I think he would be fine if I was to slowly start switching soon. What do all of you think?

Susie

Even though he seems to be adjusting very well since you have a bag of Science Diet I would probably wait a week before starting to switch but then I am a little paranoid probably because I have one cat who is sensitive. I don't know much about Solid Gold but I believe their Katz n Flocken dry and the blended tuna is all stages. If that is what your feeding your other cat you may be able to just switch him to what you are feeding your other cat. There are a lot of threads on this site about food and I am sure other people will be along with other suggestions.

Originally Posted by Denice

I don't know much about Solid Gold but I believe their Katz n Flocken dry and the blended tuna is all stages. If that is what your feeding your other cat you may be able to just switch him to what you are feeding your other cat.

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Thanks for your quick response to my post. I think waiting a week is a good idea like you said.

Yes, Shamie is on Katz-n-flocken. I do have both of the types of canned they make. I'm not sure it has all the things a growing kitten needs. I haven't done any research on what all a kitten needs from his food.
I'm more worried about giving such a young kitten canned food than I am switching kibble. I don't want to upset his stomach since he has never had canned before. Then again, I'm just assuming canned would upset his tummy I could be wrong. He has been drinking alot of water and eating well. He also has been using the litter box so I feel pretty good about that. He seems healthy and happy to me. He will be going in to meet our vet on Tuesday and will be given a wellness check up.

The reasons why I want to get him off Science Diet kitten food is because I know there are higher quality kibbles out there for kittens. I just haven't decided on which one yet.


The first 5 ingredients on this bag of Science Diet kitten kibble:

Chicken By-Product Meal-----consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.

Ground Whole Grain Corn-----the entire ear of corn ground, without husks, with no greater portion of cob than occurs in the ear corn in its natural state.

Animal fat -----is obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative".

Corn gluten meal-----the dried residue from corn after the removal of the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran by the process employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup, or by enzymatic treatment of the endosperm.

Brewers rice-----the dried extracted residue of rice resulting from the manufacture of wort (liquid portion of malted grain) or beer and may contain pulverized dried spent hops in an amount not to exceed 3 percent.




So now my research on kitten foods begins.

I agree Science Diet isn't a very good food. Shelters are on a limited budget and often the food they use is donated, beggars can't be choosers. I think one more week won't hurt though and it will give him more time to adjust before introducing new food. It's good you're getting him started on wet food as a kitten. The two cats I have now are my first cats, I had always had dogs before. I made the mistake of giving them only dry kibble as kittens and I am now struggling to get them to eat wet also. I particularly want to get my male cat to eat more wet because of the possibility of urinary blockage problems with him. Neither of my cats are being very cooperative. I got a water fountain which my male cat has taken to and he is drinking more water because of it, my female cat wants nothing to do with it, I still am trying to get them to eat more wet food.

As with any food change, do it gradually over about 14 days, i.e., keep adding some of the new to the old type, increasing the amount of new gradually. A wet food diet is a much better diet for your cat than dry kibble. There is no harm in free feeding a bit of kibble between meals unless your cat is getting very fat, but I doubt you need to worry about this in a kitten. I would suggest you find a quality kitten food and since you have other older animals you may have to feed him separately so the others don't get his kitten food.

It's also possible the change to wet food may cause some loose stool (Bijou and Mika had softer stool and they really smelled) until their systems got used to the new food.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

As with any food change, do it gradually over about 14 days, i.e., keep adding some of the new to the old type, increasing the amount of new gradually. A wet food diet is a much better diet for your cat than dry kibble. There is no harm in free feeding a bit of kibble between meals unless your cat is getting very fat, but I doubt you need to worry about this in a kitten. I would suggest you find a quality kitten food and since you have other older animals you may have to feed him separately so the others don't get his kitten food.

It's also possible the change to wet food may cause some loose stool (Bijou and Mika had softer stool and they really smelled) until their systems got used to the new food.

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I do beleive Kat s Floken is an all stage so you can feed it to a kitten...

Thank you all for your replies.