When a kitten appears in the house, life changes. After all, this is a new member of the family that needs to be looked after. This is a great responsibility. Each owner begins to worry a lot of questions: how to take care of the baby so that he grows up healthy, how to accustom him to the tray and claw claw, and the main thing is how to choose food for kittens up to one year old.
Features of choice
As for a small child, it is the first year of life that is very important for a kitten, when bones and muscles are formed, future health is laid. If you feed a small pet correctly, it will grow up healthy, it will develop immunity to various diseases. He will develop correctly, become strong, his coat will be beautiful and shiny. If this is a cat of bald breeds, he will have healthy skin.
Food for kittens up to a year is divided into several groups: from birth to four months, from four to eight, and from eight to twelve months.
Veterinarians recommend feeding a kitten specially selected feeds, with high quality, it is believed that this is how the baby will receive everything necessary for its proper development. In the future, such a kitten will switch to adult cat food.
Despite this, some owners believe that it is wiser to accustom the baby to human food. And then the cat will eat everything in a row, and there will be no problems with nutrition.
But even if you feed the kitten with ordinary food, you need to make a diet so that the animal receives all the necessary substances that will ensure proper development.
Varieties of ready meals
Especially for kittens, several lines of feed have been developed. There are good dry, wet foods, special canned food.
- Dry food is given to kittens who are older, at least they should be six months old. By this time, their teeth will get stronger, they will gnaw on dry lumps, sharpening and brushing their teeth. Adequate water should be given with this feeding. For kittens, dry food has small pellets, and it is easy for kittens to eat it. It is recommended that you select top quality feeds such as Royal Canin and Pro Plan.
There are a lot of chemical additives in cheap feeds, and they won’t benefit the baby’s stomach.
- For kittens 1-5 months wet food is provided. The bag always contains information that this type of food is intended for kittens, in addition, they can be classified depending on the breeds of cats. Some owners prefer to buy food that is suitable specifically for the breed of his pet. Here, too, it is worth focusing on the price. More expensive food is better, there are more natural supplements that are useful for a growing body. Wet kitten feeds contain soft small pieces in jelly or broth, in the form of a soft paste, which a small pet can easily cope with.
Among liquid feeds, Royal Canin, Sheba belong to the premium class. Economy class feeds, but which are popular, are Felix, Friskies, Whiskas, Kitekat.
- Canned Food - this is the most expensive form of food, and not every owner can afford to feed them an animal every day. Most likely, it will be a successful feeding, a treat for the baby, which he can receive on certain days. For the most part, canned food consists of natural products - fish or meat with the addition of healthy vegetables.
Natural food
If the owner of the pet decided to feed the kitten with homemade food, this does not mean that it can be fed with what people eat. He needs special nutrition, and therefore he will have to devote some time to cooking. His diet must include meat and fish, vegetables, healthy cereals, dairy products. The pieces of food intended for the kitten should be small and soft so that the baby can easily chew them and he does not have digestive problems. The first time you need to grind fish and meat.
You can’t give the kitten raw fish, it must be subjected to heat treatment, remove all bones from there. The same can be said about meat. Preference should be given to lean meat - chicken, turkey, duck, beef.
Separately, the kitten is unlikely to eat vegetables, so they can be added to meat or fish, these include carrots, zucchini, greens.
Many kittens react to pure milk with indigestion. Therefore, do not give milk. You can cook the porridge with the addition of a small amount of milk. In a porridge, you can add a small piece of butter. And fermented milk products, fermented baked milk, cottage cheese with sour cream will bring more benefit.
The nuances of feeding
Whatever food is chosen for the baby, you need to take into account certain nuances of feeding. The number of meals for babies is different from that of an adult cat. If a cat should be fed twice a day after a year - morning and evening, then the baby is fed 4-5 times a day in small portions. The older he is, the less often his meal. After 6 months, the kitten can be fed already 3 times a day. And when he turns one year old, he switches to adult nutrition.
Feed the kitten always in the same place and at a certain time, keep the dishes clean. After eating, leftovers should be discarded and the bowl washed. From childhood, a kitten should get used to the fact that feeding occurs at certain hours, and not at any time when it pleases. Pure water in a bowl should be constantly, it needs to be changed every day to clean.
When a kitten grows up, you can give him not only wet food and canned food, but also add dry food to the diet, it is desirable to have a premium class, since it is the most useful. But vets recommend Do not mix different lines, but feed the pet with one type of food.
In addition, you should always pay attention to the health of the kitten. It may be that one type of food will not suit him, and the other will have a beneficial effect on the body. Therefore, you need to ensure that the kitten is mobile, playful, cheerful, so that he has healthy eyes, fluffy, shiny coat, normal stool. If it is observed that the hair falls out excessively, eyes watery, diarrhea or constipation occurs, this indicates that something is wrong with the diet.
In order not to experiment with the health of the animal, it is more reasonable to consult a veterinarian who will tell you what should be changed in the diet and which food to choose. It also happens that it is necessary to feed a kitten with a special therapeutic food that helps to cope with various problems.
Despite all the existing ratings, each owner himself determines what to feed his pet. The main thing is that everything goes to his advantage, and he grows up healthy, cheerful and beautiful.
See below for proper feeding of kittens up to a year.
