Cat/kitten food

JOHNPT

Hi

I have 2 kittens which are 6 mths old. I currently give them tin food but was advised that its best to feed them just kittens/cat nuts. Can anyone recommend a good make (i bought some i aldi but they dont seem to like them)

Thanks

Adventure Pout

You can either try to feed them raw meat - this is what I did with my cat and other strays.. But with raw meat, you need to make sure to mix it with all the nutrients. I use InstinctTC : http://www.felinefuture.com/?page_id=26

Otherwise make sure to buy cat food that contains high amount of meat and protein. At the moment, in ireland I found that at tesco, they sell HiLife cat food which contains 60% of meat. which is quite good, considering most of the cat food, if you check, it says: min.4% of meat and derivative (which can be anything!!!)
Whiskas and Felix are cheap but they are really junk food, and how and what is made of, you don't want to know really...
This site can help you to look and check what you need for cat food:
http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/bb/bybcatfood.htm

TskTsk

JOHNPT wrote: »

I have 2 kittens which are 6 mths old. I currently give them tin food but was advised that its best to feed them just kittens/cat nuts. Can anyone recommend a good make (i bought some i aldi but they dont seem to like them)

Don't go near the discount store food, I haven't heard anything good about it.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62509500&postcount=7

JOHNPT

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a look for the hi-life brand. I've also seen something callled royal canine - is this any good for kittens?

darc

whiskas Kitten pouches - currently on offer at 2.46 in dunnes for pack 12.

JKM

Just a quick word of advice, I would stay well clear of whiskas or any of the other 'supermarket' brands. I'm speaking from experience on this. I had terrible trouble weaning my 1st cat off whiskas.. I swear he was addicted. I'm now feeding them all Hills. These 'supermarket' brands generally are very nutritionally poor. Most contain only 4% meat and are bulked up with ash and other horrible stuff. My Vet once told me that these tinned foods are like McDonalds for your pet. Imagine how unhealthy we'd be if we ate McD's every day.
Your local vet will most likely stock a range of good products for all different age group of cats.

By the way, I know this is off topic but, now that your kittens are 6 months old I hope you are planning on getting the little ones nuetered. It is so so important for many reasons.

Good Luck.

lorebringer

JOHNPT wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a look for the hi-life brand. I've also seen something callled royal canine - is this any good for kittens?

Royal Canin is a very good quality brand, they do a kitten variety so should be perfect for them! Hills and Orijen are also very good brands. www.zooplus.ie stock all of these, but you can get some at your vet or large pet stores too.

Kyri

Our kittens will be 6 months in December and atm we feed them a mixture of the Hills Science (Kitten - Chicken Flavor) & Orijen (Kitten - Fish Flavor). They absolutely love the Orijen but it gives em fishy breath so we just swap between the two. Vet says their in great shape but she also said its great to mix what you give them so they dont get fussy or hooked to any particular brand.

Got a small bag of the Royal Canin food at the pet show the other day and another one two that i can't remember the brand name of. Going to let them try them this week to.

JOHNPT

Thanks for all that info. I'll go to my vet & stock up on a few different varieties.

Next question - the kittens have been pretty good up til now at using their (two) litter trays. but even though I change the litter often, they sometimes go to the loo elsewhere. I've tried both gravel & woodchip types.....

btw, planning to have them neutered in next few weeks they're not quite six months old yet.

lorebringer

JOHNPT wrote: »

Next question - the kittens have been pretty good up til now at using their (two) litter trays. but even though I change the litter often, they sometimes go to the loo elsewhere. I've tried both gravel & woodchip types.....

btw, planning to have them neutered in next few weeks they're not quite six months old yet.

Good on you for planning to get them neutered!

With the going to the toilet elsewhere in the house - at 6 months this is normal, it can take some time for them to be 100% house trained, give them a bit of time to get it totally. If you have toms, they may be marking (the pee will smell really foul) and the snip all but eliminates this problem in most male cats. Just to note, make sure you are cleaning up after them using an enzyme cleaner (can be gotten in most large pet stores) or diluted biological washing powder. These both contain enzymes that break down the pee totally, preventing the cats from smelling any traces of it in the future and as a result they won't be encouraged to pee on the same place. The sillica litter seems to be the best type, but everyone has a personal prefrence. As long as it (and the general area around it) is kept very clean the cats shouldn't have a problem going in the litter trays.

PCros

JKM wrote: »

Just a quick word of advice, I would stay well clear of whiskas or any of the other 'supermarket' brands. I'm speaking from experience on this. I had terrible trouble weaning my 1st cat off whiskas.. I swear he was addicted. I'm now feeding them all Hills. These 'supermarket' brands generally are very nutritionally poor. Most contain only 4% meat and are bulked up with ash and other horrible stuff.

Thats interesting. What percentage of meat do Hills contain?