How to choose food for kittens under one year old?

When a kitten appears in the house, life changes. After all, this is a new family member who needs to be looked after. This is a great responsibility. Each owner begins to worry about many questions: how to take care of a baby so that he grows up healthy, how to accustom him to a tray and a scratching post, and the main thing is how to choose food for kittens up to one year old.

As well 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, then he will grow up healthy, he will develop immunity to various diseases. He will develop correctly, become strong, his coat will be beautiful and shiny. If it is a bald cat, it will have healthy skin.

Veterinarians recommend feeding the kitten specially selected feed, and of high quality, it is believed that this is how the baby will receive everything he needs for his proper development. In the future, such a kitten will switch to food for adult cats.

Despite this, some owners believe that it is wiser to accustom the baby to human food. And then the cat will eat everything, and there will be no problems with nutrition.

Several lines of food have been developed especially for kittens. There are good dry, wet food, special canned food.

• Dry food is given to kittens that are older, at least they should be six months old... By this time, their teeth will get stronger, they will gnaw dry lumps, sharpening and cleaning their teeth. It is necessary to give a sufficient amount of water with such a feeding. For kittens, dry food has small granules, and it is not difficult for kittens to eat it. It is recommended to choose the highest quality food such as Royal Canin and Pro Plan.

• Wet food is provided for kittens 1-5 months old. 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 right for their pet's breed. Here, too, it is worth focusing on the price. The more expensive food is of higher quality, there are more natural additives that are beneficial for the growing body. Wet food for kittens contains soft small pieces in jelly or broth, in the form of a soft paste, which a small pet can easily handle.

• Canned food - this is the most expensive type of food, and not every owner can afford to feed them every day. Most likely, this will be a good complementary food, 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.

If the pet owner has decided to feed the kitten with homemade food, this does not mean that it can be fed with what people eat. He needs special food, and therefore will have to devote some time to cooking. His diet must include meat and fish, vegetables, healthy grains, dairy products. The pieces of food intended for the kitten should be small and soft so that the baby can chew them easily and have no digestive problems. At first, fish and meat need to be ground.

You can not give the kitten raw fish, it must be subjected to heat treatment, remove all bones from there. The same can be said for 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, herbs.

Whatever food is chosen for the baby, you need to take into account certain nuances of feeding. The number of meals a toddler has to eat is different from that of an adult cat. If the cat after a year should be fed twice a day - in the morning and in the evening, then the baby is fed 4-5 times a day in small portions. The older he is, the less frequent his meals. After 6 months, the kitten can be fed 3 times a day. And when he is one year old, he switches to adult nutrition.

You should always feed the kitten in the same place and at a certain time, keep the dishes clean. After eating, discard the leftovers, wash the bowl. A kitten should get used from childhood to the fact that feeding takes place at certain hours, and not at any time when he pleases. Clean water in the bowl should be constantly, it should be changed every day for clean water.

When a kitten grows up, you can give him not only wet food and canned food, but also add dry food to the diet, preferably of premium class, since it is the most useful. But veterinarians recommend do not mix different lines, but feed the pet with one type of food.

In addition, one should always pay attention to the kitten's health. It may be such that one type of food will not suit him, while the other will have a beneficial effect on the body. Therefore, you need to ensure that the kitten is mobile, playful, cheerful, that he has healthy eyes, fluffy, shiny fur, normal stool. If it is observed that excessive hair loss, watery eyes, diarrhea or constipation occur, this indicates that something is wrong with the diet.

In order not to experiment with the health of the animal, it is wiser to contact your veterinarian, who will definitely tell you what should be changed in the diet, and what kind of food to choose. It also happens that it is necessary to feed the kitten with a special medicated food that helps to cope with various problems.

See below for proper feeding of kittens under one year old.