When your new kitten joins your household, you must first decide what diet you will give it. When choosing the food for your kitten, be sure that it is appropriate. The following is what you need to know when choosing the right food for your kitten.
Kitten Food vs Adult Cat Food
Kittens and adult cats have different dietary needs. Kittens require higher dietary needs than adult cats. Therefore, you should know what kind of food you give to your kitten. When your kitten is below twelve months, you should give it kitten food. The kitten food contains more nutrients than adult cat food. The nutrients are essential for the healthy development of your kitten. However, if some adult cat foods are suitable for your kitten, it would be best to choose an adult cat food labelled complete and balanced for growth.
You should introduce your kitten to kitten food after four weeks of depending on its mother’s milk. The kitten food contains extra proteins essential for the growth and development of strong muscles and supporting tissues. Kitten food also contains fats, minerals, and vitamins essential for fatty acids, adding calories for energy and developments of strong teeth and bones.
How Much Should Kitten Eat?
If you want to ensure the proper growth of your kitten, you must know how much to feed it. You should know how to balance the amount of food you give to your kitten. Kittens grow at a faster rate during their six months. They require more significant nutritional needs than adult cats. It is because of the sheer amount of growing they do. Therefore, you should feed your kitten more frequently.
It is appropriate for you to feed your kitten four regular meals per day during their first six months. As they continue growing and are past the six months, you can reduce their eating habits to two regular meals per day. After six months, the growing rate of your kitten will begin to slow down. Hence, you should reduce the amount of food you give it. When you feed your kitten, you must not forget to provide your kitten fresh water daily.
How To Choose The Best Kitten Food
There are two types of kitten food you can give to your kitten: wet food and dry food.
It is highly recommended that you give your kitten wet kitten food as it contains low carbohydrates and high proteins. Kitten wet food is also high in moisture. Kittens need proteins to survive and thrive, and they need moisture for hydration. There are ways to ensure that you choose the best kitten food. The following are some of them:
- Select food marked specifically for kittens: You should ensure you give your kitten food and not adult cat food for proper and healthy development.
- Choose a kitten food containing real meat: when choosing kitten food, ensure that the first ingredient of the food you select is chicken. You should provide kitten food with high-quality protein, as kittens get thirty per cent of their energy from protein.
- Check the label: you should always look at the labels of the kitten food you pick and ensure that it has proteins, fats and oils, minerals and carbohydrates. You should avoid kitten food with labels that list whole grain cereals as their first ingredient, as they have low-quality proteins compared to the one labelled chicken as the first ingredient.
How To Change Your Kitten’s Diet
A sudden diet change may cause gastrointestinal effects to your kitten and even cause stress to it. Therefore, you should know how you can effectively change your kitten’s diet without harming it. It would be best to start by adding a small amount of the new kitten food to your kitten’s existing food. Gradually increase the ratio of new to old food for about five to ten days. The slow transition is essential as it prevents stomach ailments. At the point that your kitten noses through the new food and finds the taste that it is looking for, you can now switch to the new food entirely.
You should ensure that you take good care of your kitten by giving it high-quality kitten food. You should also be keen on how much you should feed your kitten to ensure proper development. If you want to change the diet of your kitten, ensure that you do it gradually.