If you have just purchased a kitten, then you probably want to do everything possible so that your mustachioed friend grows up to be a real handsome man: strong, healthy, with chic coat and sparkling eyes. How to achieve this? Proper and balanced nutrition is the key to health not only in humans, but also in animals. After three months of life, your kitten has already matured and gained strength, moves a lot and the need for food is changing and growing. How to feed a kitten in 4 months? We learn how to make the right and varied diet for a four-friend.
Features of feeding a kitten at 4 months
First you need to consider several factors:
· The diet of your four-month-old kitten differs from the diet of an adult cat only in the daily amount of meals and its consistency. By this age, solid foods completely replace liquid cereals for babies.
· The more active the pet, the greater the frequency of food intake. In this matter, try to maintain balance and not harm: the overeating kitten is as prone to health problems as the malnourished one.
· Meat products should be overwhelmingly, vegetables and cereals - less than half the daily norm.
· Make sure that you have grass that is useful for cats in your home - grow it yourself on a windowsill or buy wheat or oat sprouts in a pet store.
· It is necessary to divide the daily norm of the cat's ration into portions, your pet is still small and has not learned how to control your appetite. The formula for calculating the diet: 200 g to 1 kg of weight.
· In the dark, it is better not to give food, otherwise the grown-up pet will then deliver you a lot of unpleasant minutes, waking you in the middle of the night and demanding your portion of food.
How to feed a kitten in 4 months: dry food or natural nutrition?
When the question arises of what to feed a kitten already grown up, there can be two possible answers: prepared feeds or natural products. Both of these options have their advantages and disadvantages. To begin with, the main rule: never mix dry food and natural food. They are digested at different times and the cat's body does not have time to rebuild. If you decide to feed your baby at home with natural food, and then suddenly you want to transfer the kitten to dry food, this should be done no earlier than 5 months. To start, soak the food in water to make it softer, this will help the cat get used to the taste and relieve difficulties with chewing. You can’t constantly jump from one type of food to another! The body does not have time to adapt, which will lead to diseases and serious consequences. We think you are a wonderful host and will not harm a furry friend. But keep this in mind.
What dry kitten food to choose? It will be a little difficult, but you can handle it. You need to buy food only in specialized stores, give preference to the premium class. In any line of feeds there are specialized feeds for kittens, pay attention to them. You can transfer a cat to adult food from 10 months. What is the difficulty? Your cat may just not like the food, not in general, but this one that you so zealously chose. Will have to experiment and find that one and only. Try to buy food with the taste of the product that your cat loved when he ate naturally, for example, beef. Remember that you can’t mix food with other foods. But the only permissible mixing is still there - with canned goods. Moreover, the same company as the feed itself. When eating dry food, the need for water increases - make sure that the bowl is always full.
How to feed a kitten in 4 months: ready-made professional feed
Pros:
+ practicality (pouring food from a bag into a bowl takes several minutes);
+ profitability (packaging of finished feed costs much less than a set of products for a full-fledged natural menu);
+ balance (the feed contains the whole set of trace elements and vitamins necessary for cat's health);
+ individual approach (you can choose food depending on age, size, breed and other features);
+ prevention of tartar.
Minuses:
- content (you cannot check whether the claimed composition matches the content);
- choice (now the market offers a huge amount of feed of different brands and classes, it can be quite difficult to figure it out);
- allergy (a cat may have food intolerance due to additives).
How to feed a kitten in 4 months: natural nutrition
Pros:
+ quality (you choose products yourself);
+ flexibility (the diet can be adjusted depending on the need to receive certain micronutrients and nutrients along with food);
+ individual menu (taking into account all the features of your cat).
Minuses:
- price (products for a complete diet will be expensive, especially considering that cats need to eat meat);
- time (for cooking your pet will have to cut out several hours daily).
Natural nutrition
So, if you familiarized yourself with the advantages and disadvantages of food types and realized that the most suitable for you is natural. Let's look at this type together.
The main thing is to draw up a diet in such a way that it satisfies all the needs of the body in nutrients, vitamins, trace elements. 70% protein, 10% fat, 20% vegetables and dairy products, as well as vitamins. What must be included in the menu for this?
· Meat - chicken or beef
· Meat offal - chicken neck and head, kidney, heart, lung
Sources of vitamins and fiber - vegetables: carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, cauliflower
· Dairy products - cottage cheese, kefir.
Come up with simple and healthy food combinations for every meal.
How to choose dry food? Feed classes
The answer to the question of whether it is possible to feed a kitten with food is obvious. Another thing is important: to find a balanced high-quality feed that will please a kitten. You can choose the best food only by trial and error.
Each newcomer can be confused by the question of cat food classes. It would seem that the ideal food is colorful packaging, funny advertising with beautiful cats on TV, the seller recommends. But is it worth trusting advertising? Let's figure it out.
· "Economy" class - real fast food for cats! It contains only second-rate raw materials. Low nutrient content, but a high percentage of flavor enhancers and harmful preservatives. Digestibility is only 50% -.
· Premium cat foods contain a small percentage of natural meat products. Acceptable for use by a healthy cat! If your cat has health problems and low immunity, you will have to abandon this class.
· The top "super premium" food is ideal for all cats. It contains a high percentage of meat, a set of vital minerals, vitamins, trace elements and nutrients. Tasty and healthy. Such food should be bought only in specialized stores, from a trusted supplier.
Choose food according to the age of the pet! Do not feed a 4-month-old baby with adult cat food.
Wet feed
If you want to include wet food in the cat's diet, then choose canned goods of the same company as dry. It can be pieces of meat or fish in a delicious sauce. It is important to remember that an open jar should not be stored for more than two days, and they must be warmed up before serving. Wet foods are ideal for pets that do not consume enough water.
