What kind of kitten food?

You're on the right track by feeding wet food! Contrary to popular belief, wet food is healthier for cats than dry.

Aristocats, however, is a low quality cat food. You'll definitely want to stick with something of better quality when you get the kitten. If your friend has them on Aristocats, purchase some of that along with the high quality food you want to switch to as you're going to want to switch /slowly/. When you get the kitten, start off with what he/she's used to (the Aristocats) and slowly, over a period of about a week, mix the higher quality food in with the old until the kitten is switched all the way over.

I hope your friend intends to spay her cat after this!

Now to determine what higher quality food you want to switch to.

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to the dump cheap leftovers and things that aren't safe for human consumption (from human food processing plants) into their foods. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop!

Seriously on a budget? Two of the most affordable of the high quality foods would be Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul and Felidae.

Before following your vet's food recommendation, keep in mind that vets get /very/ little nutritional training during their schooling. Besides that, what training they /do/ get is usually sponsored or taught by the crappy pet food companies! They also often get paid to sell some of their products at their clinics (Science Diet, Royal Canin etc.)

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Merrick Before Grain, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Ziwipeak, and Taste of the Wild.

Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic Select, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Another option, if you can't find anywhere around you that sells good foods, is to order your pet food online. Here's an excellent place to do so: http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/

Remember that foods should be switched gradually (mixing new slowly in with the old over about a week or so), especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.rawfedcats.org/ (Excellent raw feeding information for cats)

http://www.rawfed.com/ (More excellent raw feeding information)

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html (Myths about raw feeding)

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least (cats barely even chew their dry food and, really, does a pretzel clean /your/ teeth? Cats should have their teeth brushed with cat toothbrushes and cat toothpaste at least a few times a week as well as see the vet for dental cleanings when necessary /regardless/ of what they are being fed). Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/ (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm (Canned Cat Food: Can Your Cat Afford to Live Without it?)

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=libra... (Why Cats Need Canned Food)

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4.php (The Dry Food Crisis)

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm (Max's House: Feline Nutrition)

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

Also remember that freefeeding (leaving food down) is the fast lane to feline obesity. Make sure to have scheduled feeding times based on the feeding instructions on your cat's food.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Four stars is a decent food, five stars is a great food, and six stars is an excellent food.)

Darksong~

I have never heard of that brand. As far as cats go, I would go with a food that has no grains, no meat by-products and "Animal Fat", you don't know what kind of animal it is. It could be a Racoon, a roadkilled deer. Cats can't digest Corn. Same with Dogs. Cats need higher protein. More meat not grains. They don't eat a corn field or a wheat field in the wild, why put the grains in there.

I recomend Wellness kitten, Solid Gold and when the kitten is an adult, stick with Wellness, Wysong, California Natural and Instinct. You pay alittle bit more but less at the vets and you have a healthier kitten in the long run. Good luck!

If your kitten does well on a food, use it. Be careful of any foods where the ingredient list contains by-products, lots of fruits or veggies, or a lot of grains like corn, wheat and soy. The first ingredients should contain identified meats like chicken and beef. Don't buy anything that just says meat, it probably has weird junk in it. Cats have a hard time digesting veggies and grains since their systems aren't made for it.

If you can find it get Evo. Blue is the best I have found in places like petsmart, but if you are going to feed dry try to find the Evo. Contrary to what you might hear dry does not clean their teeth so wet is fine. Wet food also provides the water they need since they have a very low thirst drive.

Have fun with your kitten!

One last thing... Science Diet is junk food. It fits the nutrient profiles but the ingredient list shows that most of the food is corn. The list breaks it up into pieces like whole grain corn, corn meal, corn gluten, etc. but it adds up to be more than the meat content. Ignore your vet or anyone else on this food because it is crap. I've seen sick cats get better on good food after nearly dying on Science Diet. Trust me on this if nothing else.

I don't know anything about that brand of kitten food, but I would always look at the ingredients. Make sure the first ingredient is a meat (ie. chicken, beef, pork, lamb, etc) and the word "by-product" is not in the list of ingredients at all. These types of foods are usually more expensive, but the kitten will have less smelly and less quantity of poop.

I have eight cats and they're all on the PetSmart brand Authority. It's the most cost efficient food I found that does not have any by-products in it.

I tried a cheap brand (Sophisticat, I think) before when I had the first two kittens. I didn't know about by-products and whatnot and that resulted in horrible diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration.

I hope you find the right type of food for your kitten.

Have fun with him/her! :)

I'm not familiar with that brand of food, but the best way to find a good brand is to look at the ingredients. If the first ingredient is not meat, then do not buy it (meat-by-product is not good either). Some good brands of pet food are Innova, Wellness, Eagle Pack and California Natural. They are a little more expensive than Iams or Science Diet, but they eat less of it and you'll save money in the long run with vet bills because your cat will be eating higher quality food.

Your kitten will probably have been already weaned when he or she first arrives at your house, and, hopefully, will be eating a high-quality food designed for kittens. If so, it will probably be best to continue him on the food he is accustomed to, to avoid the inevitable tummy upsets of a quick food change. If not - if your kitten has been eating a lesser-quality (grocery store) food, you'll need to convert him over to a more appropriate kitten food gradually. Start by adding a small amount of kitten food to his existing food, then gradually increase the amount each day. You will likely find that once your kitten tastes the higher quality food, he will nose through the kibble to find those morsels. At that point, you can make the switch complete.

The best food to give your kitten in my opinion would be nutro kitten food but it is VERY expensive. So my second choice would be to give the kitten Purina Kitten chow.

I wouldn`t reccomend Iams kitten food it has given cats diareaha.It does not upset all cats stomachs but its not my favorite cat food to give to my cats.

*good luck with the Kitten*

My vet told me Purina One Kitten Food

Well first off, how old is the kitten? If he/she is less than 10 weeks, they need milk; be it from a cat or formula. If he/she is a kitten, but not weaned yet, mix milk with hard cat food. It works best. If the cat is weaned, give him/her hard food. Hard food is always a better solution from my experience (I foster-homed over 20 kittens). Make sure to be picky with cat food, because some foods are inhumane. Like they have dead/euthanized/diseased animal parts in it. One of my cats died from cheap cat food, because it contained too much of the barbiturate used to euthanize animals (As in it was made from dead, poison-filled cat corpses from the pound). I'd recommend Nutro, its a good, healthy, humane food for dogs and cats. It costs a little more, but it WILL make your animals live significantly longer.

Hi what you want to look at is the ingredients first... you DON'T want any sort of BY-PRODUCTS, which are head, feet, intestines, feathers & beaks. By-products are in most of your "grocery" brands. You also want a food that has brown rice in it... (just like humans brown rice is easier for the stomach to digest!) I recommend Nutro Natural Choice. It has tasty flavors, 100% guarantee, and only the best ingredients in it. Actually Nutro is the #1 pet food company out on the US market. (Yes the food is from the US... and not CHINA!) I also know that most pet stores have a mail in rebate for a free bag of Nutro Complete Care Cat food in their stores!

i used purina kitten dry food. the pieces of food are small enough the kitten will have an easy time chewing. i used soft food also at first but switched and the diarrhea stopped. you could try mixing the two until the kitten gets used to dry food.

I recommend Science Diet. It is made by Hill's, a company that also supplies food to vet clinics. They have a wide range of food that will grow with your cat. Kitten, to adult, to senior and everything in between. They have a soft food line and a hard food line. You can get it at pets mart.

After my cat had some trouble with a bad batch of cat food that is what they recommended I put her on. She loves it.