Best Soft Food For Kittens

Why Trust The Spruce

The products that were selected for this list were chosen after significant research was performed on their ingredients, manufacturers, and more.

Adrienne Kruzer is a Registered and Licensed Veterinary Technician in three states and has been writing on pet and vet topics for over a decade. She is also Fear Free Certified, has a special interest in pet nutrition, and loves researching, learning, and problem solving in order to better help pet owners. Her years of working in various animal hospitals, alongside her formal college education and elective continuing education classes, have provided her with a wealth of experience and knowledge to help kitten owners select the right food for their pet.

What Did Our Test Cats Have To Say

I got the salmon recipe dry food, rabbit recipe wet food, and a bottle of the Beneficial Broth Tranquility Blend food topper to test Freely cat food.

I loved that Freely offers a single-protein rabbit formula before even testing the food. Because one of my cats appears to be allergic to everything else, I feed rabbit to all three of my cats.

Itâs difficult to find rabbit-based recipes that donât include other proteins, and my cats appeared to like the texture of the Freely wet food.

Itâs similar to other minced cat food recipes weâve tried, and itâs not as dry as some pate-style wet feeds.

The dry food mixture appeared to be acceptable to the two cats who were able to taste it. This recipeâs protein and fat sources are both salmon-based, which I loved.

Are There Foods I Should Avoid Giving My Kitten

Its OK to feed your kitten treats, as long as you follow the 10% calorie rule, Larsen says. This means that treats should make up less than 10% of your kittens total calorie intake. But this doesnt mean its a good idea to turn your leftover table scraps into treats for your kitten. Also, take precautions with the following foods:

• Raw meat or liver may contain parasites and harmful bacteria.
• Raw eggs may contain Salmonella and may decrease absorption of a B vitamin, leading to skin and hair coat problems.
• Raw fish may lead to a B vitamin deficiency, causing loss of appetite, seizures, and even death.
• Milk may cause diarrhea in weaned kittens and cats because they lose the enzyme needed to break down milk.

In addition, onions, garlic, chocolate, coffee, tea, raisins, or grapes can be toxic to kittens and cats.

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Iams Perfect Portions Wet Cat Food

Iams Perfect Portions are the wet cat foods from the Age and Activity category of the brand. All Perfect Portions variants are grain free. They come in two textures: cuts in gravy and paté.

Iams Perfect Portions Indoor Cuts in Gravy Chicken Wet Cat Food

Pros

Tasty chicken flavor. Cats enjoy this chunky food in gravy. Salmon is quite a popular choice among kitties. It has flavorful sauce that has tasty chicken broth in it.

Perfect portions indeed.Cat owners love the portions of the Iams Perfect Portions wet food. They are just the right size for a meal. The other half remains unopened and will be fresh up to your kittys next meal.

Cons

Packaging. The twin packs are convenient. It allows you to serve just the right amount of food for your cats meal. However, as it is made of plastic, many customers would rather purchase goods with less impact to the environment. Aside from the plastic packaging, the lid can be difficult to open at times.

The Iams Perfect Portions Indoor Cuts in Gravy Salmon is a good grain-free food to try for cats who have sensitivities to grain and other fillers. It is rich in protein and other nutrients as it has chicken, salmon, chicken-by-product meal, and chicken liver. Though the variant is labeled salmon, the number one protein source is actually chicken. Owners of cats that are sensitive to chicken must read the ingredients list of any brand of food to make sure that they are getting the right food for their pets.

Pros

Cons

Wellness Chicken Pate Kitten

Protein: 11.0% | Fat: 7.0% | Fiber: 1.0% | Moisture: 78.0%

Wellnesss chicken pate is one of the highest rated kitten foods around. The pleasing pate is easy for kittens to eat and comes in a very tasty chicken flavor. There are plenty of proteins in this wet food to help your kitten grow big and strong. Taurine is included, which is a key ingredient thats essential for heart and eye development.

Wellness pride themselves on producing very natural cat foods, and youll be please to hear that this formula contains nothing artificial. There are high levels of protein and fat to make sure your kitten develops healthy muscles, organs, and bones. Your kitten is sure to have plenty of energy for all the playing and discovering that is so precious during the early months.

Wellness brand cat wet foods are designed to promote 5 signs of wellness. Those 5 signs are energy, immunity, skin and coat, teeth and gums, and digestive health. We recommend this brilliant kitten food to owners who prefer to stick to as natural a formula as possible. Wellness Complete Health kitten food review.

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Buying Guide: Soft Kibble Cat Food

When shopping for soft kibble cat food, its essential to keep a couple of things in mind. These two things are texture and ingredients.

Its essential to keep these two things in mind to avoid feeding your cat any ingredients they may be allergic or sensitive to and give them the right texture for what their teeth can handle. For example, there are varying degrees of soft kibble cat food, and some may still be too crunchy for cats with dental problems. There may also be ingredients that your cat needs more or less of to live a healthy life.

Blue Buffalos Wilderness Indoor Chicken Recipe

Blue Buffalos Wilderness Indoor Chicken recipe is a grain-free dry cat food thats packed with real chicken to build strong muscles. It also contains a precise blend of vitamins and antioxidants and is made without corn, soy, or meat by-products. Indoor cats need a diet with balanced calories, and this formula does just that.

This cat food has a high protein content because its made from deboned chicken. It also contains other healthy ingredients, like sweet potatoes and cranberries. BLUE Buffalo Wilderness Indoor Chicken Recipe gets a seven out of ten paws rating from CatFoodDB.

Inspired by the diet of a lynx, BLUE Wilderness is grain-free and packed with real chicken. It also has a unique blend of natural fiber sources that reduces hairballs. For added value, the brand also offers a Buddies Rewards program that allows customers to earn free stuff when they purchase BLUE Wilderness dry cat food.

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Which Ingredients Should Be In My Kittens Soft Food

Always choose commercially produced cat food labelled specifically for kittens or for growth, which have been approved by your vet. It must be nutritionally complete and balanced to ensure the healthy development of your kittens growing organs and body systems. Refrain from buying cheap and generic wet food brands that may not contain premium ingredients. If a product lists whole grain cereal, cereal byproduct, or meat byproduct as its primary ingredient, do not purchase it.

When looking for soft food to feed your kitten, make sure that it is packed with high quality ingredients, and a balanced amount of protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fat, and carbohydrates:

What Should I Feed A Kitten

A kitten rapidly grows during the first few weeks of her life, gaining double or triple her body weight in this stage. Initially, a newborn cat should drink her mothers milk to receive essential nutrients and antibodies. When her mother is absent or unable to provide milk, kitten supplement formula or kitten glop may be given instead. Kittens cannot just drink any kind of milk produced by animals or derived from nuts because these may cause unwanted side effects.

Milk can be consumed by kittens until they are 3 to 4 weeks old. After that, they must transition to soft food to compensate for their rapid growth and active lifestyle. Since they are still unable to chew properly, a combination of milk and wet food can be fed to kittens about 3 to 4 times a day until they are 6 weeks old. They should be able to consume high-quality dry food by the time they turn 1 and a half months old. Specially made kitten formula food should be served to your pet until she reaches 1 year old.

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How Much Food Does A Cat Need Per Day

Overfeeding a cat leads to excessive calorie intake and weight gain, while underfeeding runs the risk of malnutrition. Feeding just the right amount depends on many factors, including age, size, overall health, activity level, and reproductive status.

For example, highly active cats will need to eat more to sustain their energy, while sedentary cats can do well eating less to avoid weight gain. Pregnant female cats require more food to meet the demands of pregnancy, while their spayed counterparts do not need to eat as much.

The WSAVA has a helpful chart for determining how many calories a cat should eat according to weight. This chart provides only general recommendations, so you should consult with your veterinarian to discuss your cat’s individual needs.

Blue Buffalo Indoor Health Natural

Its no surprise that we just had to look as a couple of Blue Buffalo optionsBlue Buffalo makes good cat food after all, using real ingredients, vitamins, and minerals that are not only meant to entice your cat to eat, but that are also made for your cat to digest comfortably. With meat right there as the first ingredient in this food, it shouldnt be an issue at least for you to get your cat to eat this food.

Feed this food to your indoor cats for them to chew on the blended bitswhich are made to be soft enough for your cat to eat comfortably. This can be your cats entire diet and theyll get all the nutrition they need to live well.

Pros

• The Lifesource bits are made to be soft enough to eat
• The food is completely natural
• Adult cats find that its easy to chew

Cons

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The Best Dry Foods For Kittens

To find the best dry kitten food for you, youll be needing a bit more information than a rough overview.

Through a combination of personal experience, studying the market for consumer feedback, and online studies, weve put together this brilliant list of dry food for kittens. Below are the best dry kitten foods for providing a nutritionally complete meal to any young growing cat.

Best Wet Cat Food Of 202: Overall Picks

The following foods all combine nutritional ingredients, complete nutrition, and palatability. They are also highly recommended by cat parents and have price points that make them accessible to the majority of families.

Here are our favorite wet cat foods of the year:

Cats can be finicky eaters, but thats where Smalls steps up to the plateor, rather, the bowl! Smalls human-grade fresh cat food is protein-rich and picky-cat friendly. Their gently cooked, all-natural wet cat food recipes are available in three proteinschicken, turkey or beefand rounded out with healthy veggies like green beans, peas, kale, or spinach to provide important vitamins and minerals. No mystery meats or by-products, artificial flavors, colors, preservatives or sketchy stuff herejust pure goodness delivered to your doorstep. You can also choose from two different textures, smooth or ground. Talk about putting cats first!

Highlights

• Wet food is available in three proteins and two textures
• USDA-certified, humanely-harvested, and sustainably-sourced ingredients
• No artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives
• Contains enough taurine to exceed AAFCO standards
• Made in the USA

Things to Consider

Every bite of Open Farm Rustic Blend human-grade wet food is packed with tender meat, rich broth, and delicious farm-to-food-bowl flavor cats love. We love that Open Farms ethical, eco-responsible practices are good for pets, people, and the planet, too!

Highlights

Things to Consider

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When Should You Worry About Picky Eaters

But we also dont want to assume that our cats pickiness is just a cat being a cat and overlook a potential problem.

Refusal to eat can be a sign of a more significant underlying condition. According to Cornell Veterinary School, A sustained loss of appetite is a clinical sign of many diverse feline health problems, ranging from diabetes, kidney disease, hepatic lipidosis, hyperthyroidism, and pancreatitis to conjunctivitis, asthma, and a fever.

In other words, it can be a very big deal.

So I want to make a clear distinction between a cat that has suddenly stopped eating anything and a cat thats fussy, finicky, or picky. If your cat has stopped eating anything, contact your veterinarian as soon as possible.

Not only because it could be a sign of something more significant but cats that dont eat for even three to four days can begin to suffer from hepatic lipidosis which is a dangerous liver disease.

On the other hand, if youre trying to change your cats food to something more nutritious or just mix things up for your picky feline, then youre in the right place!

Best Wet Senior Cat Food

Senior cats can have their nutritional needs met with either wet or dry food, as long as the food meets AAFCO nutrient requirements for maintenance. Similar to senior dry foods, wet foods for senior cats contain added ingredients, such as fish oil, to help maintain good overall health and cognitive function.

Wet food provides a few other benefits for senior cats. Its soft, moist texture is ideal for senior cats with periodontal disease, a painful and uncomfortable disease of the teeth and teeth-supporting structures that can make eating difficult. The high moisture content in wet food benefits senior cats with chronic kidney disease the water in the food helps to support kidney health and manage symptoms of chronic kidney disease. Wet foods high moisture content also promotes good digestion, helping senior cats whose digestive systems may not be working too well.

If your senior cat is a long-time fan of dry food, transitioning them to wet food may take some time. Rather than transitioning to all wet food, consider adding wet food as a tasty topping to your cats dry food to provide additional moisture and taste.

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Stella & Chewys Freeze

You can serve Stella & Chewys Freeze Dried Dinner morsels by rehydrating it with warm or cool water or even feed the food as is it is tender and soft enough for cats with poor teeth and conditions such as tartar buildup or gum disease to eat with ease.

This is the diet of cats in the wild. Raw diet is gaining a lot of popularity and these dinner morsels will provide your cat-from kitten to elderly cat- with all the protein, taurine, and other vital nutrients it needs without sacrificing on taste or texture.

We love this soft food for being 100% free from antibiotics, fillers, colors, and preservatives.

It is also free from grains which is great for cats having digestive troubles, allergies, or pet food sensitivities.

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Best Limited Ingredient Cat Food

Limited ingredient diets may be recommended for cats with gastrointestinal or dermatological issues that are likely caused by an adverse reaction or allergy to ingredients commonly found in cat food. Veterinarians often use LID foods to perform food elimination trials in order to pinpoint the source of a cat’s food sensitivity.

When it comes to healthy adult cats, Okada told us that there is no advantage to feeding an LID formula. These recipes were historically formulated with uncommon ingredients and novel proteins like wild game, but the inclusion of these ingredients in regular cat food has made it more challenging to identify appropriate foods for a cat in need of an LID. To make it more likely that an LID will work for a cat who develops allergies or food reactions later in life, Okada said that healthy adult cats should stick to regular cat food formulas that are complete and balanced.

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How Much Should I Feed An Older Cat

Portion sizes for older cats are very much dependent on the size and weight of your older pussycat! All cat foods vary in their calorific content so you need to be very aware of how much you are feeding them and its nutritional value.

A sensible method of managing portion size would be to invest in an automated cat feeder such as the Surefeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect. This incredibly clever device monitors the amounts of food your cat is feeding and simply sends their feeding data to an App on your phone. Super clever stuff and VERY efficient.

Wheter you’re using an autometed feeder or not, you should always consult with your vet when getting accurate advice on how to adjust to their senior citizen diet.

If your cat needs to lose weight, there are many weight loss foods that enable older cats to do this healthily. But, to repeat, it is always best to get the vets advice before putting your elderly cat on any form of diet.