Please could you tell me what your thoughts are with regard to the food I am giving my 2 kittens. (One is 14 weeks and the other is 18 weeks)

Breakfast is Natures Menu kitten sachet plus some Sainsburys wafer thin cooked chicken.

Dinner-time - same as breakfast.

Tea-time - More cooked chicken and tuna in spring water.

RC kitten biscuits are in a dish for them 24/7.

They absolutely love the wafer thin cooked chicken. I know it is not exactly packed with nutrients, but it's not bad or anything is it?

This might sound rather silly, but if I am giving them a lot of cooked chicken, is it a case of a good quality cooked chicken is much better to give them than say some cooked chicken which is cheaper - M&Sp. rather than Iceland?

Don't think this is just a question for me hun! Loads of people on here who could help you with that

What do I think about your feeding regime? What to hear the truth? Not a lot. This is because you seem to be feeding too much of the cooked chicken on a daily basis. The rule is that you can feed any non-complete food (complementary food, raw or home cooked food) for about 20% of your cat's weekly meals.

So, if you feed your cats 3 times a day then you can feed about 4 meals a week with food of this ilk. However, imo, that rule applies more to adults than growing kittens who really need as many nutrients as they can possible ingest. So, personally, I would try to minimise the use of non-complete food for kittens and feed more of some good quality complete foods.

So, there is nothing wrong with feeding some cooked chicken as an occasional treat but it ought not be a staple part of their diet. Also, as an aside, read the package of the cooked chicken next time. You might be surprised to read that it contains sugar etc, which has little or no part to play in a cat's diet.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was so impressed with all of your research and listings of ingredients for the wet and dry foods, that I would just ask your advice on this one.

So the chicken sounds to be more of a tasty treat than an actual meal for them?

Also, sounds like I should be increasing the NM - due to this being a complete kitten food.

Yes, definitely more of an occasional treat. At least you now know what to spoil them with when they are in for a treat.

The good thing going is that you currently feed NM, which is a pate. Since they eat that without any problems it seems you could explore some additional good quality type foods that might also make it a little easier on the purse. Have a look on zooplus for the likes of Animonda Carny, Grau, Bozita Pate, perhaps even Smilla. Or check out Leonardo, Lily's Kitchen (links to which can be found on the A-Z but Lily's kitchen can be picked up from Waitrose/Ocado or some independent pet shops).

To me, a good diet consists of a few good quality foods that are fed in rotation. Reasoning can be found here: Feeding cats for beginners (and more seasoned cat owners alike)

Hope that helps!

Thanks for your help and suggestions.


Scarlett

Lily's kitchen is good, I have one cat who has Ziwi Peak, raw and Lily's and another on Lily's and HM recipe with supplements tailored for him since he doesn't take well to ZP or raw. Checked out the Floyd link however not much success as there is not much organic choice at the moment available on there. Also for some reason, one of our cats who doesn't have raw can't handle offal and too high meat content, is likened to human eating something which makes them feel lethargic, uncomfortable, he just becomes a different cat. Has anyone encountered this with their cat(s) before?

If it was me, I'd cut out the biscuits for all day grazing. If you're feeding regular, nutritious meals, they don't need anything in between.

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Oh, I forgot Ziwipeak but I find it very expensive for what it is. At least Lily's kitchen is organic and made in the UK by an independent manufacturer.

Perhaps have a look on fuetternmitspass. They have more organic (bio in German) food from manufacturers such as Biopur, Defu, Herrmanns (though both of those are had on zooplus too), two of the Petnatur are organic, they also sell Yarrah (but you can get that on zooplus). There is also Alders Landfleisch, they use organic carrots lol

I guess your cat has some kind of metabolic deficiency. So are you feeding a low protein food?

Hi Hobbs,

Thanks for the wealth of information, the other thing with him as with a few cats is that he is a picky eater! I've tried him on the Hermanns- he turned his nose up at it. For some reason, with the ZP wet, he was doing bottom burps and this is unusual for him, he has the dry and he seems fine on this as I'm not a fan of kibble personally.

Yarrah, not too keen even though it's organic, says 'meat derivatives' and not too sure what part of animal going in, he didn't seem to like that either from what I recall. Also controversy to give grain or not to give grain, as like to give vegetable or not to give vegetable.

The HM cooked chicken thighs and today I added wild alaskan salmon to the mix and including supplements, he loved it, just seeing what his stools will be like. Meanwhile waiting for company Welcome to Pet Diets to get back to us since vet has made referral.

Prefer cooking for him as I know what ingredients are going in, with what they are doing to our human food these days, where meat is cloned and now becoming more 'artificial' from an article I read.

The rise of man made meat? by Andrew Morgan

Oh absolutely, the great advantage of a raw or homecooked diet.

Ah yes, I have come across that service. I had a snoop once and found some free recipes but they seemed to be rather carb heavy, which might not be a bad thing for your boy though.

Have you looked into other supplements such as Premix, which I believe you can use with cooked meat? You just need to add liver to meat. A tad costly but might be a good alternative. Or would it? If your cat isn't good with a lot of meat.? Sorry just typing as i am thinking lol