New Kitten And Diet

[chromecat]

Hi all, as you know our kitten has been with us for three days now. The foster carer said he was on Fancy Feast and said Felipe only likes tuna and chicken, so we bought some of those. The association (which is the same I foster for) also gave us a supermarket brand of the same flavour, chicken and tuna. Now, this is food for adults (the tin doesn't say "kitten") but the foster carer (he is very experienced btw) said it was OK since kitten is almost 4 months old. We're also giving him dry food (for now) and that one is specifically for kittens.

I am thinking of slowly switching to kitten tin food - but does it make sense to do it now at 4 month? I will be introducing chicken necks as well as that's what vet suggested (he's a paleo vet and he is pretty much against dry food left out at all times and against tin food in general!).

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and comments!

 

[LTS3]

Does the food have any statement saying if it's for "all life stages" or for "adult maitenance"? "All life stages" food is ok to give. You just need to feed more of it to meet a growing kitten's needs. "Adult maintenance" food can be fed occasionally if you don't want to waste those cans.

A 4 month old kitten is still growing so a kitten food with the occasional "all life stages" food is great You don't need to do any sort of food transition.

Try to limit seafood in your kitten's diet. Too much seafood can cause health issues in cats. Can I Feed My Cat A Fish-based Or Fish-flavored Diet?

 

[chromecat]

Does the food have any statement saying if it's for "all life stages" or for "adult maitenance"? "All life stages" food is ok to give. You just need to feed more of it to meet a growing kitten's needs. "Adult maintenance" food can be fed occasionally if you don't want to waste those cans.

A 4 month old kitten is still growing so a kitten food with the occasional "all life stages" food is great You don't need to do any sort of food transition.

Try to limit seafood in your kitten's diet. Too much seafood can cause health issues in cats. Can I Feed My Cat A Fish-based Or Fish-flavored Diet?

Just checked! The few tins we bought do not have an indication, just says "good for growth and maintenance". The cheap supermarket ones actually say on the label 1-7 years. So I think at this point I will have to do the switch?

 

[LTS3]

If you want, you can switch to kitten only food. But keep the other ones for when your kitten is older. Most canned foods are good for at least a year or so.

 

[chromecat]

Hi all - I recently adopted a kitten, he's 4 months old now and 2kg. We saw the vet for the first time last week, and he suggested we feed him chicken necks instead of brushing his teeth. We did not understand how often we should give him a chicken neck.

So far he is eating about 2 tins of canned food per day (we mix Dine for kittens and Fancy Feast for kittens) and half cup of dry food (sometimes less, sometimes more, we just give him dry food when he's alone for more than 1 or 2 hours). Should we give him a chicken neck every day in addition to what he already has? Or should we give it to him once a week, and we should diminish the portion of wet food on the days he's given the chicken neck?

Looking for suggestions

 

[furmonster mom]

If you are only doing it for the dental benefit, I'd say once a week is fine.
As a reminder, the chicken neck should not be cooked.

Since he's still young, I wouldn't decrease his regular food... let him eat as much as he wants. I would, however give a few hours between the regular food and the chicken neck.

 

[chromecat]

Thanks for your reply - if we were to use chicken necks about every 3 or 4 days in addition to his regular meal, that would be OK? Isn't he too young for that?

 

[lalagimp]

My boys are adults, and I give them 1 neck between them. I cut it in half with the kitchen shears, and they spend 5-10 minutes working on it. At this point I am guessing that the vet determined that your cat has his big boy teeth all in now, so put them to work. I just don't hand them out all the time because my lovelies have a weight problem, and Tom is supposed to have lower bone content for maintenance on his bladder since he had FLUTD issues and surgery.

 

[chromecat]

My boys are adults, and I give them 1 neck between them. I cut it in half with the kitchen shears, and they spend 5-10 minutes working on it. At this point I am guessing that the vet determined that your cat has his big boy teeth all in now, so put them to work. I just don't hand them out all the time because my lovelies have a weight problem, and Tom is supposed to have lower bone content for maintenance on his bladder since he had FLUTD issues and surgery.

How often do you give them the neck? We gave him once yesterday and he ate all! Chewed it happily and then didn't leave one single bit. Are they supposed to eat the bones?

 

[orange&white]

How often do you give them the neck? We gave him once yesterday and he ate all! Chewed it happily and then didn't leave one single bit. Are they supposed to eat the bones?

Yes, crunching the bones is what scrubs his teeth. As furmonstermom mentioned, never give him cooked bones...they need to be raw. I would think one or two a week would be all right.

 

[lalagimp]

I only give them the necks when I'm ready cook a chicken again. I don't find necks at the grocery store; just gizzards. I can see if they have them at Hare-Today when I do another rabbit order, but I think they only stock turkey necks. Those bad boys are huge.
Maybe they'll have chicken necks at the international market down the street.

THEY DO HAVE NECKS Product | Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

 

[Ardina]

I usually feed a chicken neck or wing once a week for dental health (their daily food mix has some chunks of boneless meat and chicken hearts too). It's usually wings, since those are easiest to get. On occasion, when I've bought a whole chicken for my own dinner, I'll give them the neck.

 

[chromecat]

Hi all, as mentioned I have decided to give Felipe (a bit over 4months old DSH) 2 chicken necks a week. After the first one it took him 2 days to poop - then the following days he was having wet food only and pooped regularly once a day. The 2 days ago we gave him another chicken neck and he hasn't pooped yet! Can raw food make digestion slower? At what point do I start getting worried? He's happy and playful as usual otherwise (maybe peeing more than usual, but he is also drinking more than usual since it's quite hot).

 

[chromecat]

All good, he's pooped! Probably chicken necks slow down his digestion until he gets used to them

 

[Ardina]

I do find that Saipha now poops every other day on raw food compared to once a day when she was on canned food. But she also produces a lot less poop, so maybe that's why?

 

[Jshuler]

All my cats eat a raw diet and when i converted 1 of the cats from wet food and kibble to raw due to food allergies that happened. I believe like previous reply that introducing something new . I will say my cats are regular and have no issues and do so much better litter box wise on raw diet .

 

[10009891]

Chicken necks? iiikkk. I am very squeamish in feeding raw meat to my cats.

 

[Merlin77]

A lot of bone can cause constipation in cats, and I guess it also takes a while longer to digest. Maybe you could feed the chicken necks along with pumpkin? Pumpkin helps digestion. Only one tablespoon should do the trick.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Hi all, as mentioned in a previous thread, I have decided to give Felipe (a bit over 4months old DSH) 2 chicken necks a week. After the first one it took him 2 days to poop - then the following days he was having wet food only and pooped regularly once a day. The 2 days ago we gave him another chicken neck and he hasn't pooped yet! Can raw food make digestion slower? At what point do I start getting worried? He's happy and playful as usual otherwise (maybe peeing more than usual, but he is also drinking more than usual since it's quite hot).

Chicken necks are pretty heavy in bone. It sounds like he handles them fine, but if it makes you nervous you could always add in a bit of plain meat to balance things out.
I've found that raw organs, just a little bit (especially liver!) can really act as a laxative, too!
I wouldn't get too upset unless you see him in the box, straining and straining and nothing is happening!

 

[1 bruce 1]

I follow this type of diet for my cats. Very little supplementation and lots of variety, lots of chewy chunks that gross non-raw feeders out. I found it very helpful.
I have found that a few of our dogs really require a lot more bone than is considered "normal" to keep poop problems at bay. A few require much less. Smaller dogs (IME, in my experience) require a bit less bone than larger dogs to keep "all systems go". Our cats seem to require (and enjoy) more organ meat (in ratio) than our dogs.
We feed more organs than a lot of folks do, provided no pet has diarrhea or ill effects. We make a really gross slop of liver, heart, kidney, spleen, pancreas (pancreas is like melted, slimy cotton candy of the Devil I swear I will NEVER be OK with handling it, LOL) and tripe and feed it ground to ensure everyone get the amount they need. It's easy for everyone to suck down ground organs in a mouthful, and this way we know everyone gets what they need. Organs can cause loose stool (especially liver!) if fed in too-high amounts but we've yet to have any problems. Organ meats are SO nutritionally dense, they're rich...but really good sources of vitamins and other goodies.
The good thing about a home prepared diet is it can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual pet. Commercial foods can do this, too, but if the dietary needs of the pet are very specific sometimes this is a good diet to use provided the proper research has been done.
HTH =)