Appropriate diet for kittens?

[reigninseattle]

I have a litter of 5 week old kittens (5 weeks as of last thursday) who are now eating a lot of "real" food. They are still nursing (at least I assume they are, I never see them nursing but mamma cat still has milk) but the mom cat is underweight and I want to get them eating as much real food as possible so she has a chance to put some weight on (she was a stray, pregnant when I found her). My question is about what I'm feeding the them and whether it is a good diet for growing kittens. I am feeding them the same food I feed the mom cat, which is Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul wet food, and Nutrisource Pure Vita Chicken Entree dry food. They get the wet food 2x a day (usually I split up 1 5.5oz can between mamma cat and the 5 kittens at each feeding) and have the dry food free choice. Here are the ingredient lists etc.:

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul canned:
Guaranteed Analysis:Crude Protein (min.): 10.0%  Crude Fat (min.): 5.0%  Crude Fiber (max.): 1.0%  Moisture (max.): 78.0%  Ash (max): 2.0%    Calorie Content: 187 kcal/can Ingredients:Chicken, chicken liver, salmon, turkey, duck, chicken broth, whole grain brown rice, white rice, oatmeal, potatoes, barley, egg product, guar gum, flaxseed meal, kelp, carrots, peas, apples, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, taurine, dried chicory root, carrageenan gum, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin B12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, copper sulfate, calcium iodate and sodium selenite.

Nutrisource Pure Vita Chicken Entree dry:
Guaranteed Analysis:Crude Protein: min 32.0%Crude Fat: min 18.0%Crude Fiber: max 6.5%Moisture: max 10.0%Linolenic Acid: min 3.0%Magnesium: min .08%Zinc: min 150 mg/kgVitamin E: min 130 IU/kgTaurine: min 0.18%Total Microorganisms: min 100 mil CFU/lb 
Ingredients: Chicken, chicken meal, peas, pea flour, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), dried egg product, natural flavor, yeast extract, pea protein, pea starch, pea fiber, dried brewers yeast, tomato pomace, phosphoric acid, salt, potassium chloride, DL methionine, carrots, sunflower oil, minerals (iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, cobalt proteinate), cranberries, apricots, cherries, taurine, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium carbonate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, mineral oil, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate), turmeric, dried chicory root, vitamins (vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), choline chloride, inositol, yucca schidigera extract, glutamic acid, rosemary extract, yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Aspergillus niger fermentation product, dried Bacillus subtillis fermentation product

Does this sou d like a good diet for kittens? I have never had young kittens before and I tend to worry. Also I've heard I should rotate between different brands of wet food?

 

[katluver4life]

Kittens need to eat often and as much as they want to. A wet/canned food diet is always preferable if possible. This gives them the most nutrients and water they really need. Typically feeding them at least 4/5 times a day.

Any total life cycle wet food is fine as long as they get enough of it (frequent meals), though you can certainly go with actual kitten foods also. These tend to be more nutrient dense and contain more fat which kittens need, cause they burn a lot of calories with growing and play. Momma would also benefit from the kitten food also. It is often recommended that pregnant and nursing mom's be put on kitten food for the same reason, she looses weight and though it is natural, it's not something we really want to happen if we can prevent it.

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul is a good cat food. I would offer more variety too. Evo and Wellness are a couple of my favorites, with Wellness being a bit higher in fat and so would work well for your crew IMO. Hopefully others will have more suggestions. Good luck!

 

[tulosai]

I personally would feed kittens that age (and mom too if she is underweight) kitten food.  Iams kitten food is good quality dry for the price.  Fancy feast kitten food (wet) doesn't have much variety but is good quality for the price too. If you have more money to burn I agree with the Wellness and Evo suggestions for the dry (and possibly the wet).  The wet you are feeding already is good too.

Good luck!

 

[reigninseattle]

I was feeding mamma cat Chicken Soup For the Kitten Lover's Soul dry food, but when she started losing weight after she had the kittens I wanted to put her on a higher calorie dry food, that's why I switched to the nutrisource. It says it's for all life stages. I can't offer the wet food more than 2-3x per day, I work and if I leave too much out they won't eat it all and it will get dry and gross. I have heard that wet food is better for cats, but it's just too expensive. Also Missy doesn't seem to be too fond of wet food, the only wet food she will eat is Chicken Soup (I used to give her the Kitten version but the store where I got it no longer carries it) and Newman's own, but I can certainly start giving the kittens some variety. Do you think I should switch dry foods? What do you think of Blue Buffalo Kitten dry food?

 

[reigninseattle]

Also I was considering evo and Wellness dry foods, but I don't like how much fish is in the Wellness kitten food, and evo was recalled and hasn't come back yet :-(

 

[reigninseattle]

Went to Petsmart today and bought a bag of Blue Buffalo Kitten food. I gave some to Missy as a taste test, and she seemed to really like it, so I mixed a bit in with their old food and put it down for her and thekittens. Then I saw a thread here saying how Iit was making their cats sick! And I did a google searchand found a bunch of other people saying how bad Iit was! Now I'm worried! I immediately went and took the food away and put their old food out. I will be returning it to the store tommorow. I really hope they don't get sick! I'm also pretty irritated with myself because I already mixed some of the BB in with about 2 cups of the Pure Vita (I work at a vet office, and I'm taking them to work with me tomorrow to get their first vaccines, so I was preparing some food in a baggie because they will be there for a few hours and will need food), and the Pure Vita food isn't cheap
Maybe I will try the Wellness Kitten food. The wellness I was looking at was the Wellness Core, which is fish based. The regular Wellness is not fish based. Or possibly Felidae.

 

[bonchuno]

When Simba (now 3mo.) first moved in, he was barely 5wks old - barely weened from mama cat. He still had kitten teeth for the most part, thus teeting all the time. We considered getting him kitten milk but your babies are with their mum so that won't be a concern as long as she would tolerate occasional breast feeding as she weens them. (Our vet confirmed 5wks old kittens are fine without breast milk though, I think it would only benefit the babies the more they can get mom's milk, naturally)
Canned food would be the best but for the concentrated nutritional benefits, you may consider what I did for our new kitten - mixing 2 to 3 part kitten formula dry food with 1part warm water or homemade chicken broth*. This helps a lot if the kitten is having a hard time adjusting to the dry kibbles with their milk teeth. Of course, always use a fresh clean bowl for each serve and have fresh water available. Our kitten seemed to appreciate the temperature of food (no hotter than human body temperature just as a precaution, eventhough kittens have higher bod temp than us.) as it reminded him of the lost mother's warmth. Just be sure to give the mixture enough time (20 min max) to bloat. Once you get used to it, you will know how much hotter the liquid should be so the final food won't be stone cold. Of course, kittens need to be fed 5 times per day but I suggest doing this maybe 3 times or the majority and serve 'em plain ol' dry food or simply canned food to switch things around. Watching how they do with the dry (unprepared food) is also a great indicator to know their teeth growth. After 2 weeks or so reduce the time of the 'liquid-bloating-process' gradually. As the 'bloating time' decreases, the amount of liquid should be reduced accordingly, so there's no runny broth in the bottom.

*For the broth, I went a little wild and simmered raw chicken bones (no seasoning!) with water in a big pot for at least 12 hours then strained with fine mesh and froze most of it & refridgerated the rest. Microwaving liquid in a glass measuring cup before adding to dry food helped me!

And for the brand of the kitten chow, I think you are very keen on every nutritional and other details. As long as the the food includes extra fat, calcium, protein, and dha for added bonus and they enjoy the taste, you should trust your ability to be anal. (I mean that as a complement.)

Our latest addition, Simba the kitten is now old/ready enough so I don't have to make the extra work anymore.

 

[reigninseattle]

As long as the the food includes extra fat, calcium, protein, and dha for added bonus and they enjoy the taste, you should trust your ability to be anal. (I mean that as a complement.)

When it comes to my pets, I always take that as a compliment ;-)
I returned the blue buffalo to the store. I think I will just stick with what I'm feeding (they eat the dry food just fine as is :-)), or possibly mix in some TOTW dry, haven't decided yet. I also got some different kinds of wet food to rotate with the Chicken Soup (Authority, Simply Nourish, TOTW, Felidae). They all saw the vet today, had an exam and got their first shots and second round of dewormer. The vet didn't seem too concerned with Missy's weight either. And nobody could believe how big they are for 6 weeks, the biggest one weighed in at 1lb 11oz!