How to feed your young cat properly and healthily
When your little feline sets its tiny paws in your home for the first time, one thing is clear: a new family member now lives here. By the time you →start with your kitten you should have found the answer to the question of proper and healthy nutrition. Which nutrients do you need to pay attention to and how much does such a little cat actually eat per day?
How often should I feed my kitten?
During the kitten phase, young cats receive five to six or even more small meals per day. Until the sixth month this feeding with several small meals is recommended; from this age you can reduce the frequency to two or three meals per day – but not the amount! Some owners continue to give their cats multiple meals even as they get older, instead of just a few larger portions. This is closer to the natural eating behavior of cats, as wild cats also consume several portions throughout the day – up to 20 meals within a 24-hour period.
Both mother cats and wild cats eat many small meals.
How much cat food does a kitten need per day?
You can find out how much food should be in a meal with complete feeds, which you often find as →BARF, wet or dry food, from the feeding recommendation on the packaging. Here’s how you do it:
1. Determine the weight of your cat. You need this to be able to read from the table on the food packaging how much your cat is allowed to eat.
2. Research the expected final weight of your cat. For cat breeds, you can easily find out via internet research or a call to the breeder how much your cat will weigh approximately. Why is this important? In the →feeding recommendations the rows and columns for feeding amount meet at the point that is best for the current weight and the expected final weight. This ensures your kitten is supplied with all necessary nutrients.
3. As the last step, you just need to look in the table for the feeding recommendations and take the correct amount. Note: This refers to the daily amount. Divide this by the number of meals you want to feed your young cat. An example with our delicious →Junior Wet Food Sauce Menu with Turkey and Pumpkin:
On your cat's food, you will find precise information about the feeding amount, which you should always follow.
Your kitten currently weighs 0.5 kg and has a target weight of 4 kg. Then the correct daily feeding amount is 190g. As you’ve learned, your little one shouldn’t gobble all of that up at once. With seven meals per day we divide the feeding amount of 190g by the number of meals, which is 7. 190g divided by 7 equals about 27g for each of the seven meals. That may sound like a small amount at first, but it’s optimal for such continuous feeding of growing cats.
Please refrain from increasing the amounts on your own just because you want to make your kitten happy. Added minerals also have no place in kitten food. Healthy kittens gain about 100 grams per week. If your little cat is significantly above or below this value, you can slightly adjust the food amount in consultation with your veterinarian.
For a healthy start in life: At Pets Deli, we have created the tastiest meal for your young feline. And the best part? Our junior food provides your young four-legged friend with essential proteins, vitamins, and minerals, because a precise composition is very important for growing cats.
The Best Start to a Four-Legged Life: Discover Our Healthy Junior Food
Which food should you feed kittens and young cats?
To best support the rapid growth of your cat’s bones and organs, it’s essential to choose a →good kitten food . This contains certain nutrients in higher amounts than adult food; for example, the protein content is up to 10% higher than in food for adult animals.
At Pets Deli, we recommend feeding junior food up to the 12th month. By then, the most important processes of the growth phase are complete and your pet’s body no longer needs higher doses of nutrients. At this point, you should switch to an adult cat food.
You want only the best for your feline – but you should still refrain from acting on your own when it comes to supplements and adding extra nutrients to your cat’s food. A good junior food already contains the perfect dose of nutrients and your cat is well equipped for healthy bone growth.
Wet food or dry food for kittens?
You’re wondering why there is both wet and dry food in the range and which is better suited? There are some pros and cons to both feeding types. For many cats, the →different textures of wet food are not only more attractive, but wet food for cats has crucial advantages for the water balance of cats – as they are often poor drinkers. Wet food provides much more moisture and covers most of a cat’s daily needs. Lack of fluids is a serious issue, as it can lead to urinary tract and kidney diseases. Wet food must always be served fresh and stored in the fridge once opened. Unlike dry food, it contains a higher protein content, but must be fed in larger amounts due to a lower carbohydrate content.
Dry food can easily be divided into small portions – and as you’ve just learned, that’s also important when it comes to species-appropriate feeding. Many owners are also fans of the practical pouches, which are easy to reseal. One option is mixed feeding, where cats get a few meals as wet food and can snack from a bowl of dry food throughout the day. Make sure to calculate the feeding amount based on both recommendations so your cat is not over- or underfed.
Switching food for young cats
When your kitten moves into its new home, a lot happens: away from mom and siblings, and everything else is new. Different smells, unfamiliar faces, and you might already be thinking about new food. That’s totally fine – maybe the breeder’s food doesn’t match your idea of healthy cat food and you want to feed your darling the very best as soon as possible. The rule here: take it slow.
Feed your kitten for a few days with the food from the breeder or shelter before you start the →switch to a new food. After that, you can start to mix part of the new food with the old – this can be done regardless of the food type. If your cat is only used to wet food and you want to switch to dry food, that’s usually not a problem.
Your little four-legged friend has just moved in and you want to give them the best food right away? Patience is important here, as your four-legged friend has a lot of new impressions to process.
Help, my cat won’t eat anymore
Life with your new kitten is not only exciting for you. For your little darling, a new chapter brings many changes, which can especially at the beginning affect their appetite. There’s a lot your four-legged friend has to process, so sometimes there’s no time to eat . Additionally, other factors can also influence your cat’s eating behavior and →loss of appetite can occur:
Teething: If your pet refuses dry food or harder snacks, teething could be the cause. During the phase when your pet is losing its kitten teeth and new teeth are growing in, it may have trouble chewing hard food. During this time, you can offer food in a softer consistency.
Too much of a good thing: Some kittens seem like they could handle two more portions, while others are more than full with their daily rations. If your pet generally eats but always leaves some food in the bowl, you can slightly reduce the portion size and instead feed more, even smaller portions.
The wrong bowl: If your kitten won’t eat from the bowl, but will eat from the floor or your hand, the type of bowl may be the issue. Your four-legged friend may have trouble eating from the available bowl. Both the size and the type of bowl can play a role. Cats prefer to eat from shallow bowls and as far away from their water bowl as possible.
Training: You can hardly resist your kitten’s big, round eyes and it gets everything it wants? This can backfire in many cases, including feeding. If your cat has learned that refused food is replaced with something else, it will remember that and hope for a food change if it doesn’t touch the bowl. Here, as part of →training you shouldn’t give in right away, as cats are picky creatures.
If your kitten gets hungry, it will eventually eat the food and realize that the decision about the food is yours. Constantly giving in and changing food can lead to →behavioral problems where your little cat runs circles around you. If your little darling refuses food for a long time, you can try a new one.
Snacks during the kitten phase
No question – especially during your getting-to-know phase, treats play a super important role. In general: treats are basically allowed from day 1. But it depends on the type, quality, and ingredients.
We recommend you start with non-fatty, easily digestible snacks and not go straight for tripe. Your kitten’s stomach is still growing and therefore particularly sensitive to various tummy rumbles.
Make sure that the size of the treat matches the size of your cat, so your pet can’t choke. Also pay attention to the ingredients of the snacks: sugar not only harms the teeth, but is also suspected of promoting diseases such as diabetes mellitus and obesity. Other additives like colorings and flavorings also have no place in a healthy snack.
Your little feline can snack its way through our range and find out what it likes best. Our snacks are guaranteed free from sugar, grains, and artificial additives!
