kittens!

[buggygirl65]

at what age should you fead your kittens soft food?

[Chrisanne]

I personally would never feed kittens canned food. However, if by soft you mean moistened dry then i'd say starting at about 4 weeks or so.

[Trickiesmurf]

why shouldnt you feed animals soft food?

[Crazy Chin Lady]

Soft food will not help remove plaque or tartar from their teeth. With the dry food they are crunching it and helping promote healthier teeth. That's why I won't ever feed canned food as their staple diet. If I were to do canned, I'd do it only as a treat.

[pihlaja]

I STARTED weaning my girls when they were around 4-5 weeks old by giving them moist canned food for kittens and moistened dry food (mash) for kittens. You can make the mash by adding hot water to dry food and letting it soak, then mashing it up with a fork or spoon. I personally believe it is good to give them both. My reasons for this is that at first, they WILL prefer the canned stuff and from experience, if you start with only canned, they're going to WANT only the canned when they get older. But, if you give them both, they will be more accepting of the dry food as they mature. Giving them a variety of flavours also helps them in not being too finicky.

As they get older, slowly take away the canned and make the moistened dry food more dry. As I stopped wetting the dry food so much, I put in bits of the canned to make it more appetizing. But, eventually they were weaned off the canned mixed with the dry to only dry.

Also, I believe the only thing that REALLY helps in removing tartar and plaque from your cat's teeth is brushing. I would go out and buy some toothpaste and toothbrush for cats and introduce them to having their teeth brushed at a young age.

And moist food is not entirely bad. It's good to give cats some canned food because it contains more moisture than dry, which will help cats that don't drink enough water. (In case you didn't know, if a cat doesn't drink enough water/get enough moisture, they can develop a urinary tract infection [UTI].)

Hope this was helpful.

[Trickiesmurf]

Quote: Originally Posted by pihlaja And moist food is not entirely bad. It's good to give cats some canned food because it contains more moisture than dry, which will help cats that don't drink enough water. (In case you didn't know, if a cat doesn't drink enough water/get enough moisture, they can develop a urinary tract infection [UTI].

I have heard this too I feed my kitten canned food maybe one or twicw a week. She doesnt seem to like it as much though. I also brush my kittens teeth my roommate thinks I'm crazy.

[Dena]

When weaning bottle fed kittens I mixed some KMR with some wet kitten food (be prepared for a nice mess) at about 4/5 weeks. As they eat it I gradually lessen the amount of KMR. I like to use a double feeder and start to add dry to the wet food. I then start to offer dry mixed with wet on one side and just dry on the other. Once they start to eat the dry I free feed with dry and suppliment once or twice a day with wet food. As they get older reduce the amount of wet food. I schedule feed my cats with dry food only as adults. Occasionally I will replace one of their dry food meals with wet food and its like dinner at he 4 Seasons for my cats.