Cathryn
Im afraid to let my kitten eat a table food coz she might get rid of it... or may be she will no longer eat a cat food anymore when i try to feed her a table food... Thanks in advance... :D
Judy
Let me share with you what I have learned about feline nutrition to help you make an informed decision on what diet you should feed your cat. Many brands of manufactured cat foods claiming to be "healthy" really are not. In fact they are made of the lowest ingredients possible. Im not saying that a cat cant live off them... just the same as you could live off hot dogs and Mac and cheese forever, but better choices can and should be made for your feline friends. I would not venture to say that any manufactured food is "best" for a cat but a grain free organic wet food would be a good start. Feeding canned is certainly better than feeding dry in all cases. Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. Its completely species inappropriate. All small domestic cats descended from desert cats. In the wild, desert cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they dont need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. Additionally water was usually not available to them in their desert climate. So they do not often drink water. Regular ol house cats have descended from those same wild desert cats. So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it needs from dry food and it’s almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it, but it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl. Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, allergies, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), bladder stones, kidney stones, urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions. Overall, wet is all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs… not our cats. It is also bogus that kibble cleans teeth. DRY FOOD DOES NOT CLEAN TEETH. Its an old myth that has been scientifically disproved for years, but old-school vets drilled it into peoples heads for so long (and sadly still do) that people still believe it. Cats can not “chew”. They do not have flat “chewing” teeth. Their molars are not for grinding food. They have meat ripping pointy carnivorous teeth. You may see them “crunch” a piece of food once to crack and break it… but they are absolutely unable to chew a hard piece of food. Want your cat to have clean teeth? Give them an appropriately sized raw bone to chew on. :o)I personally feed a Raw Meat and Bones based diet to my cats and they are very healthy on it. I HIGHLY recommend it. Once I got the hang of it and felt comfortable with it its a snap to prepare. Its something you might want to consider someday. Cats are obligate carnivores after all and must derive ALL their nutrients from meat based sources. They are unable to absorb them from any other source. Despite thousands of years of domestication they remain strictly carnivorous. True and honest meat eaters and that is what they need most. Protein from meat! If you are interested in feeding a raw diet some great places to start learning are http://www. catinfo. org/ , http://www. catnutrition. org/ , and http://www. felinefuture. com/nutrition/ .If you would like to try raw with your cats and don’t want to get all technical about it but want to try a trusted, time tested and balanced raw diet you can order from http://www. felinespride. com/products/cat… . I purchased this myself when I first started and my cats loved it! Another premade Raw you can try is Natures Varity. I personally have never used this but know many people that do and it’s pretty easy to find http://www. naturesvariety. com/content. la…If raw is not an option for you please be aware that there are three Categories of manufactured Pet Foods: -"Grocery store" foods – (Generic Brands and cheap name brands) Those foods found in grocery stores and mass-market retailers are made with lower-quality, less-digestible, inexpensive ingredients and are therefore a cheaper alternative. While easy on the pocketbook, "grocery store" foods normally do not provide your cat with the healthiest, most nutrient-dense ingredients.-Premium foods – (Iams/Eukanuba, Purina One, Hills Science Diet, Nutro and such) Foods often found in grocery stores, pet stores, and veterinarian offices that contain higher-grade ingredients, but still include many elements of "grocery store" food, such as artificial colors, artificial flavors, chemical preservatives, and "filler" ingredients such as corn and wheat products, by-products and even animal digest. Yuck! Premium foods are usually more expensive than "grocery store" foods because their ingredients are sometimes of a higher quality, and are therefore somewhat more beneficial and digestible. But don’t be fooled, some of those same so called Premium brands are sometimes worse than grocery store foods, but they charge prices like they are better. They aren’t! - Healthy foods – (Wellness, Merrick, Eagle Pack, Drs Foster Smith) The newest addition to the pet food market - provide pets with the highest quality, healthiest, and most nutritious ingredients. They are typically available for purchase online or direct from the manufacturer. Some better retailers are starting to carry them now. Complete Petmart carries a few healthy brand foods. Foods in the Healthy class contain nutrient-rich ingredients. Formulated to provide optimum health benefits for pets, these foods often use real meat as the primary protein source, carbohydrate-rich whole grains like brown rice and barley and whole, fresh fruits and vegetables. They should not contain artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors. They will almost always be fortified with additional vitamins and minerals, and will use the best natural sources for fatty acids to help build healthy skin and a beautiful coat. Because healthy foods use high quality ingredients, you should expect to pay a little more than you would for other types of pet food. Remember, though, with healthy foods you can feed less since healthy foods are more nutrient-dense than other types of food so it often evens out or cost’s les than feeding foods filled with cheap non-nutritional by-products fillers. With all that information in mind, when you are choosing a new cat food, study the ingredients. All ingredients on pet food labels are listed by weight. Meaning whatever ingredients are listed first on the list, there is more in there. The first ingredients listed should be whole meat ingredients, protein sources, such as Chicken or Turkey. NOT just the word “meat”! Who the heck knows what that is? The word Chicken Meal is ok, but it should be a secondary ingredient, not first. Meal is the meat dehydrated and ground into a powder. The ingredients also should NOT include any by-products or animal digest whatsoever. Those are disgusting left over animal parts that are scraped off the filthy floors of meat and poultry plants. They should just go into the trash but they put them into pet food instead. EW!!!! Also make sure there are no artificial colors or flavors. And make sure there is no BHA and BHT used preservatives. These preservatives have been shown to cause cancer in both cats and dogs. Bad Bad stuff and it’s in almost every cat treat on the market. :(So, in summery of the ingredients… if you see the words by-products, Animal Digest, the word “meat” alone, Corn, Corn Gluten, Wheat Gluten, or BHA or BHT… stop reading, put down that product and move on to the next. Be aware that when switching to a Healthy, Holistic or Organic food, you will pay for what you get. Good foods are not cheap. They are pricey and will cost you more than cheaper products, just like steak costs more than hotdogs. But again, you will be feeding a better food and improving the over all health of your pet. This in turn leads to less vet visits for illness now and more importantly later in life in their geriatric years. You will also feed less of this food on a per animal basis because a smaller amount of food contains what your cat needs. Overall healthy wet foods are well worth it, if only for the piece of mind that the ingredients are better for your cat than cheap crap. You can start your research for a healthy cat food here if you are not ready to try feeding a Raw diet: http://www. onlynaturalpet. comIf you want to buy in a store, Complete Petmart is a good store and carries quite a few natural, organic, and holistic blends. Also check with your local feed/grain stores. I highly recommend you take the time to research for yourself, but the information I have given should get you off to a good start. Good luck choosing a healthy food!********IMPORTANT*******Don’t forget to switch your Pets food slowly over a period of 10 to 14 days, if you can. Mixing 25% new to 75% old. Then 50/50… then 75% new to 25% old. And finally switch over to 100% new. Take it slow as not to upset their digestive system.
Kimiko
Science diet
Marisol
Meats that are plain are fine for snacks. Your cat is a carnivoreFor regular food, you need to do your researchNutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s healthContrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat. Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or is it meal or other things? Learn what meal and other things mean here. http://www. catinfo. org/#Learn_How_To_Rea…Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u. t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms of food allergies probably from the grains. Constipation? Dry food, not enough moisture. Blockages? Again not enough moisture in the food and you are risking something serious. People on this board say feed fiber but this is a cat not a dog and cats are obligate carnivores unlike dogs an they dont eat cereal and dont need fiber. The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food (Cats are not naturally big drinkers) but inDry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and dont use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive. You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesnt have corn at all or grains at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food as it uses a muscle meat as the first ingrediant. 9lives, friskies whiskas are lower grade canned but still better then dry and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. The optimum food to feed cats has no grains whatsoever, cats have no use for them and many have trouble processing them as well as the carbs. IBD is another disease that is rapidly becoming common amoung cats because of the inappropriate diets being fed. Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? Why do people constantly repeat this old wives tale and put teeth over the organs like the kidneys?? (I have no clue) http://www. felinefuture. com/nutrition/bp…Please read about cat nutrition. http://www. newdestiny. us/nutritionbasics…http://www. catinfo. org/feline_obesity. ht…http://maxshouse. com/feline_nutrition. ht…
Ela
Do not feed your kitten table food. There are many things that are harmless to us but toxic for kittens (onions and garlic for example.) Feed your kitten a good dry food with a high protein number (38% or higher.) Purina One Kitten food is a great choice.
Bridgett
Sorry but I dont understand what you are asking. What is a "table food"? What do you mean she might get rid of it? You also ask about a Persian kitten "1 month above". Do you mean your kitten is one month old? I really hope not. A Persian should not be taken from its mother until it is at least 12 weeks old (a domestic breed can leave a bit sooner at around 8-9 weeks).If your kitten is that young it will not have been weaned by its mother, nor will it have been taught proper behaviour by its siblings and you may end up with an aggressive cat as it will not know the difference between playing and fighting. You either need to take it back to its mother (this would be the best thing to do) or consult your vet about milk substitutes (never give ordinary milk). When it gets a little older it should be fed a proper kitten food mixed with a little water and then gradually leave the water out. Persians are notorious for having stomach problems so you really need to learn what you are doing and never introduce a new food too quickly. You must always mix it gradually with the old food or they will get diarrhoea.
Delpha
Science diet.
Laurena
Hey when i got my persian kitten precious i didnt really know what too feed her so i asked my vet and he recomended whiskas kitten push out pouches so i tried it and she loved it shes now 11 months and is like a little trooper i really hope this helps as it did the world of good for my kitten good luckP. S you can buy it in your local vet or a pet supply shop
Chung
HOLISTIC FOOD! Ask your vet and local reputable pet store. Grocery store cat food is made of fillers and corn meal to fill them and not give them the nutrition they need. The foods where the first ingredient is chicken and meat (Not meal or by-products) will also FILL you pet and give them better and proper nutrition. Fillers will cause your pet to overeat because their body needs more nutrition. Look for Holistic. Its very important for their development. Hope this helps! Good luck! FEED HOLISTIC FOOD TO YOUR PET!!SPAY NEUTER YOUR PETS!!!ADOPT FROM A SHELTER NEAR YOU!!!!=0)
Elois
Wellness. Science Diet has too many fillers and starches that they dont digest all that easily. Wellness is organic, and really amazing, my cats are full of energy. Please remember to have your cat spayed at 5 months, be part of the overpopulated solution, not the problem.
Krysten
You need to get it kmr kitten formula if it is only 1 month old it needs nutritious liquid as its main food since the mom isnt around to feed it breast milk. dont feed any table foods unless its some kind of meat and dont feed it a lot if u do. after its 2 months or 3 months feed it canned food like 9 lives.