Best Kitten Food

A small body size plus highly calorific, nutrient-dense food means that kittens can’t have their dinner all at once. Portions should be divided throughout the day, which will help avoid any nasty litter tray incidents. Most kittens and owners find that three or four meals is manageable.

Within reason, though, kittens should be allowed to as many small portions of food as they like. Many owners prefer to leave out food for grazing throughout the day, instead of a mealtime routine. This is fine, so long as the environment doesn’t contribute to food going bad—but be sure to observe for signs of overeating, and bear in mind that a meal schedule can help integrate positive routines into your cat’s day.

By the time they turn six months old, most cats can make the transition to a twice-daily feeding schedule, though this can depend on breed, and be partly dictated by the cat themselves. Some cats may prefer to stick to three smaller meals throughout their life.

Unfortunately, we do live in a nation of obese moggies. A 2018 survey by the Association of Pet Obesity Prevention found that as many as half of US cats classify as overweight. While growing cats need calorific food, excess energy and nutrient intake can create their own health problems.

Eating habits begin during the weaning stage and continue through adulthood, with bad habits much harder to remove than good ones are to instill. When obesity becomes a long term issue, a slew of health complications emerge, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoarthritis.

As anyone who’s owned a cat knows, switching between food brands and types can be a nail-biting experience. Cats are the fussiest of eaters, and are more than willing to go on hunger strike if the menu doesn’t match some mysterious set of requirements.

If you are considering changing your kitten’s food or graduating them to young adult options, you can choose from two opposing schools of thought:

One side maintains that new food should initially be combined with a cat’s current meals, with owners slowly increasing the rations of new to old, until your cat is fully eating their new brand. Others contend that this method risks turning the cat off both types of food, if they happen to dislike the new kind.

Unfortunately, we can’t tell you which is more likely to work with your kitten. Though, evidence suggests it can be easier to switch foods when kittens have been pre-exposed to a variety of flavors and textures.

As mentioned, kitten food has a higher calorie and nutritional density than food for other feline life stages. If a fully grown cat eats kitten food, they might develop an upset stomach as a result. If a kitten eats adult food, they’re unlikely to receive the nutrients they need to grow.

To help choose the right type of food for your cat, spend some time browsing product labels and descriptions. Most states have legal labeling requirements that match the Association of American Feed Control Officials’ (AAFCO) life stage nutritional adequacy claims. While these labels don’t necessarily speak to ingredient quality, they do ensure that food contains the recommended nutritional balance for the four main dietary stages in a cat’s life:

• Growth/Kitten
• All life stages
• Maintenance
• Gestation/Lactation

If you feel that your kitten would benefit from a more specific diet, it’s worth starting up a conversation with your vet. Kittens can frequently experience gastrointestinal irritation, which may sometimes require a prescribed diet plan.

Speaking of vets, discussions about dietary habits should definitely form part of your kitten’s early-life consultations and check-ups. Talk to your veterinarian about any of your kitten’s idiosyncrasies, from their food preferences to their avoidance behaviors and bathroom habits.

While you’re the best judge of your kitten’s daily health, your vet can be invaluable in spotting dietary needs and sensitivities.

Your vet should also help keep your kitten on an optimal rather than a maximal growth plan. Optimal growth rates refer to a slow and steady increase in size and weight, which promotes proper joint and bone development.

Maximal growth rates are to be avoided. This means that your kitten is growing as fast as possible, making them more susceptible to issues such as joint dysplasia and that will manifest later in life. A maximal growth rate can increase a kitten’s risk of becoming overweight or obese.

If you’re seeing them regularly, you can help your veterinarian out by making in-home assessments to supplement the official weigh-ins. Ask your vet for home care guidance the next time your kitten is due for a visit.

All cats love fat. It’s a concentrated source of energy and carries many of the most essential vitamins and compounds. Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are often quoted as the most desirable of these fatty acids, thanks to their role in developing and maintaining brain, eye, and nervous system health.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is one omega-3 fatty acid particularly crucial to kitten development. Found in fish meat and oils, DHA enhances cognitive function and is associated with an improved inflammatory response. As a result, look for fish oil supplementation even in non-fish flavored kitten food options.

We’d recommend feeding you kitten foods with a 4-10 percent fat content as-fed basis, or  15-30 percent in terms of dry matter. While well-sourced fats are great, even kittens are capable of consuming more energy than they spend.

‘Grain-free’ is one of today’s most popular marketing claims across the pet food industry. It’s great that more cats have access to food that’s not stuffed with low-value ingredients, but at the same time, it’s critical that owners don’t take ‘grain-free’ as a synonym for health.

Unfortunately, there are major food brands on our shelves using the ‘grain-free’ label while simply replacing grain with another source of carbs, such as soy. It’s true that potatoes, soy, or other legumes other minor nutritional benefits over grain, but none of these ingredients should ever comprise a major part of your kitten’s diet.

In other words, small amounts of carbohydrate ingredients are present in most cat foods, and shouldn’t be a cause for concern. But, if carbohydrates start creeping up the ingredients list—grain or otherwise—you may want to shop elsewhere. By the time carbs make it to the fourth, fifth, or sixth spot, their lower weight, means that they’re compromising a significant proportion of the food.

If your kitten is eating plentiful, well-sourced proteins and fats, and not consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, then they’re 99% percent of the way towards a great foundational diet. Because they are carnivores, kittens are great at deriving all their vitamin, mineral, and essential acid needs from animal products.

Because even the best kitten foods are processed products, however, the nutritiousness of ingredients is inevitably lowered in comparison to real live prey. Because of this, most food will supplement whole ingredients with vitamin, mineral, and fiber additives, filling in any potential gaps in your kitten’s dietary needs.

Beneficial additives to look out in kitten food include:

• Pre-biotics: supports the colonization of bacteria in a new feline immune system
• Taurine is an essential amino sulfonic acid that is naturally found in meat, but it can often be diminished during processing.
• Calcium. Kitten growth formulations should contain 0.8-1.6% calcium on a dry matter basis.
• Vitamin A. They must eat a form of vitamin A that has already has been converted from carotenoids to its active form. In other words, from an animal, not a plant source.

Once an appropriate nutritional product has been chosen, no additional vitamin or mineral supplements should be given.

When a feral or wild cat catches and eats a live animal, they’re consuming something that contains around 70-80 percent water. Just because domestic cats don’t hunt for their food, it doesn’t mean they don’t still require this kind of moisture content in their diet.

As mentioned at the top of this page, cats’ desert roots mean that they always look for hydration from food before water sources, which is why wet foods are so essential. We recommend striking a good balance of hydration and nutrition by selecting kitten foods that contain between 70 and 80 percent water.

For kittens, moisture-rich food also contributes to palatability. Soft textures can be kinder to small teeth and are familiar for kittens transitioning from milk to solids. Many kitten foods will be offered in a soft mousse variety for this reason.

If you find yourself without any high-moisture options, but feel your kitten would benefit from more hydration in their dinner, you can combine one part warm water with three parts dry or canned kitten food. The end result should have a consistency and look resembling cooked oatmeal.