What Type of Canned Cat Food Should be Used to Feed a Kitten?

Once you begin wean your kitten off milk replacement formula, you can start to switch it to a canned food diet, feeding it solid food completely by 10 weeks of age. A kitten, with its developing teeth, can better chew and digest the soft, wet, canned food, which also is more palatable to it than dry food. Choose a canned food nutritionally balanced for a young, growing cat, and one that your kitten prefers.

  1. Kitten Specific

    • When feeding your kitten canned cat food, purchase one specifically formulated for a kitten. A kitten requires a higher amount of calories, protein, vitamins and minerals in its diet than an adult cat. You can also feed canned foods labeled "for all stages of life" to your kitten. Avoid those labeled as "maintenance" diets, which refer only to adult cat foods. Continue to feed kitten-specific food until your kitten reaches 1 year old before switching it to an adult formula. Use canned kitten food mixed with kitten replacement formula to wean your kitten off of milk between the ages of 4 and 8 weeks.

    Nutritionally Balanced

    • Purchase nutritionally balanced canned kitten foods approved by the Association of American Feed Control Officials. AAFCO is a regulatory agency that works with pet food manufacturers to ensure that the formula contains a proper, kitten-specific, nutritional balance of pet-safe ingredients. The AAFCO seal will appear on foods that meet the daily dietary needs of a kitten. According to the PetEducation web site, a kitten requires a food high in protein, amino acids such as taurine and arginine, essential fatty acids such as arachidonic and linoleic acids, niacin, and vitamin A, usually in the form of retinyl palmitate. As an obligate carnivore, a kitten needs to eat a primarily meat-based diet composed of animal proteins, not plant-based ones.

    Quality

    • When considering which canned kitten food to feed to your young cat, choose a food made with high-quality ingredients. High-quality, canned kitten foods contain whole meats, fish, or egg as the primary ingredients, listed first on the label; they usually cost more than lower-quality ones, according to the Doctors Foster and Smith website. These foods will also contain added vitamins and minerals to maintain your kitten's health and you can usually find them in specialty pet supply stores, as opposed to grocery stores. Your kitten can better digest and absorb the nutrients contained in foods made from high-quality proteins such as meats or meat meals. If you feed your kitten cheaper foods that contain animal by-products and grain fillers, you will need to feed larger amounts of them, since these foods provide lower energy values than higher quality ones. Avoid foods made with artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. Opt for foods made with whole meats, grains, vegetables or fruits, and natural preservatives.

    Feeding

    • In order for your kitten to eat the food that you choose, it needs to enjoy the taste. Some kittens prefer certain flavors of food, such as fish, chicken or beef, and the food you select will depend on your particular kitten's taste. When switching your kitten to its new food, do so slowly, over one to two weeks. Mix the old food with the new one on a 3 to 1 ratio, and increase the amount of new food gradually, about every few days. A slow switch to a new diet prevents gastrointestinal upset in your kitten.