What is the best kitten food out there? My kitten has been on science diet at the shelter I adopted her from, she’s fine on that, but what is the best?

The best foods are the ones with meat as the first ingredient and no grains as cats are carnivores. The worst foods? Dry aka kitty crack.
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary 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 ingrdiant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label

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
The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process them. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in
Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t 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 doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. 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? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php

Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics.html

http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall

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by Scott O. Evans

Lets start with the cons first and then go to the pros.

Making homemade kitten food can be time consuming. Lets face it; there is nothing easier then opening a bag or can and pouring it into a bowl. When you make your own kitten food you will ..

Source: homemade cat food

When born a kitten weighs 3-4 oz.. The weight must double in the 1st 9 days and continue to extend by a total of over thirty times its birth weight in the 1st year. They practice climbing, jumping, running, and ridicule fighting with one another and are a joy to look at. This successive action needs huge amounts of energy supplied in the shape of a high calorie intake. Kittens eat their mummy’s milk for the 1st weeks of their lives.

During this time, they nurse enthusiastically at each waking hour. The milk provides them with all the nutrients their bodies need. It is loaded in protein and comparatively low in carbs and fats, compared to cow’s milk.

This is the best food available for them – always fresh and served at the right temperature. In the 1st a couple of days after the birth, the mother cat produces a special condensed sort of milk called colostrum. The colostrum contains passive antibodies, which give the kittens with non-permanent protection to certain illnesses. Weaning should be a steady process, permitting the kitten to slowly adjust to a new kind of food. As the kittens requirement for the mummy’s milk declines, she’s going to produce less milk and continuously dry up. Reducing the quantity of food the ma consumes, helps to speed up the method. For soft canned food, start by mixing one part cat food and 2 parts of water. Steadily decrease the quantity of water in the mix. By the point the kittens are 10 weeks old, they’ll be feeding only on kitten food. Making an investment in quality kitten food will give the kittens a healthy start in life and will help protect them from illness. There is no real need to supplement such food with vitamins or any other addition. Adding pointless minerals and vitamins to an already nutritious diet can basically harm the kitten. Their stomach is too tiny to contain all the food they need split into only two portions. It’s best to free-feed kittens and let them nibble across the day.

However, if you feed kittens with canned cat food, don’t leave it sitting out for long, as it would get marred. Instead, divide the daily amount into 3 or 4 portions and feed at equal intervals across the day. In between meals, keep the food cooled and heat to room temperature before serving. During their first months, kittens develop the food preferences that may stay with them for life. To keep away from finicky eating habits later, you need to feed diverse tastes of foods in this time.