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Providing your kitten with the proper nutrition goes way beyond just putting fresh food in a clean bowl. Your kitten’s nutritional needs will change as her body develops through adolescence. Proper nutrition during these critical growth periods will help your kitten mature into a strong, healthy adult cat. Discover four essential kitten-feeding tips you need to know in your kitten’s first year.
Learning what development milestones your kitten will experience in her first year will help you decide what and when to feed her.
After kittens are weaned, they enter a stage of rapid growth, which lasts through the sixth month of life. They need a balanced diet to deliver the nutrients and energy to sustain such rapid development.
Kittens have twice the energy needs of adult cats on a pound-per-pound basis. But their smaller mouths, teeth and stomachs limit the amount of food they can digest during a single meal. Therefore, it may be best to divide their total daily food amount into three or four smaller meals.
Because every bite must be packed with nutrition, kittens require a diet specifically formulated for growth. The best choice is a food with animal-based proteins that is highly digestible, nutrient dense and designed to meet kittens’ unique nutritional needs.
As kittens approach adult size, their nutritional requirements begin to change again. Their rate of growth begins to slow, activity levels may decline and they can start eating fewer, larger meals each day. During this stage, kittens begin to look like adults, but they are still growing and need the special nutrition found in kitten food.
The adolescent growth stage is a time when many cat owners are tempted to change a kitten’s food for variety. But cats do not get bored with a consistent diet of high-quality dry food. You can supplement your kitten’s dry food with a nutrient-dense canned food for a nutritious change of pace.
When your cat is about 12 months old, it’s time to switch to a maintenance formula adult cat food, such as IAMS™ Proactive Health™ Healthy Adult with Chicken. At this age, cats no longer need the extra calories and nutrients for growth supplied by kitten food. As with any change in a cat’s diet, remember to gradually transition from kitten food to adult food over a period of several days.
Monitor your cat’s weight and body condition during the transition, and adjust feeding portions if necessary. Because cats generally eat only what they need, free-choice feeding is fine for most cats. However, some indoor cats that don’t exercise much may overeat if fed free choice. In this situation, portion-controlled feeding twice a day is a good alternative.
Giving a kitten “human food” and table scraps can lead to undesirable behaviors, such as begging or stealing food. Feeding homemade diets or food formulated for adult cats (especially those designed for weight loss), or supplementing a complete and balanced diet with vitamins could cause nutritional disorders.
Kittens and cats are strict carnivores and need the nutrients found in meat. For example, sufficient amounts of taurine, an essential amino acid provided naturally through meat, help cats maintain healthy eyes, heart and reproduction. All IAMS kitten and cat food formulas have optimal levels of taurine for every life stage.
Most cats spend a considerable amount of time grooming their coats. As they do so, their hair is swallowed and may build up over time in their stomach. If the hairball doesn’t pass from the stomach, the cat will attempt to eliminate it by coughing or gagging.
Many cats have a hairball at some point in their life, but some cats, such as long-haired cats and cats that groom excessively, are especially prone to hairballs. In hairball-prone cats, frequent brushing can help reduce the amount of hair that is ingested, thereby reducing the risk of hairball formation. Feeding a special diet designed to decrease the likelihood of developing a hairball may also help.
Diet can be important in hairball relief for several reasons. The fiber combination of powdered cellulose and beet pulp in IAMS™ hairball formulas helps move hair through the digestive tract. IAMS research has shown that cats fed IAMS ProActive Health™ Adult Hairball Care pass 80% more hair in their feces than cats fed a leading premium dry cat food. By helping ingested hair to be passed from the digestive tract, IAMS hairball formulas help reduce the opportunities for hairballs to form. This fiber blend also includes a moderately fermentable component to promote intestinal health. High-quality, animal-based protein and fat, found in IAMS hairball formulas, provide important nutrients for skin and coat health. Maintaining skin and coat health may reduce the risk of excessive shedding, ingestion of hair from grooming, and, consequently, hairball formation.
Overweight cats have special nutritional needs in order to promote weight loss or weight management. Likewise, senior cats have special nutritional needs that are better met through a diet designed specifically for them. If an overweight or senior cat has problems with hairballs, feeding an IAMS hairball formula for indoor or senior (age 7+) cats is a great choice.
Yes. Mixing other foods with IAMS hairball formulas may compromise the effectiveness of this diet by diluting the nutrients that help reduce the risk of hairball formation. Switching between IAMS hairball formulas and another cat food may also decrease the benefit of feeding this diet.
