Hi Everyone,

I'm a longtime lurker and first time poster, and will be getting my first bengal kitten in a few weeks (actually my first cat ever)! =)

I have some questions about the best kind of diet for my kitten. (I apologize if this has already been covered extensively)

My breeder recommends I feed Orijen kitten/cat dry food, which is what the kittens are currently being fed. I asked her about whether I should also supplement this with wet food, and whether I should eventually transition to an "adult" cat food, and she stated that wet food is bad for cats, and that treats are also bad, and "if you need to provide a treat, provide boneless chicken breast".

I know that she clearly cares about the best possible nutrition for her cats, but should I really only feed my kitten one type of food for the duration of his life? While I have no issues with purchasing this food for him, it seems a bit boring for him to only ever eat one thing. But then, I've never owned a cat, so I don't have any experience to base this opinion on.

What do you think about only feeding one type of food forever? Should I be mixing it up, once he is older?

Thanks!

We feed a rotating variety of wet foods here plus raw or cooked meats and cooked fish. I want to think this is better than one food only, but I'm not expert to be honest

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The little monsters 3

We rotate "flavors" of wet food (Wellness brand) and then he gets a small dry food snack at lunch.

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Mel, Mom to Loki and 3 kiddos

I'm a little surprised that she said wet food is bad. I'm of the opinion that even if you feed your kitty mass-market, mainstream kitty canned food that has grains/filler it's still better than dried as the kitty is getting much more water into their diet. Many health issues simply associated with not getting enough water into their diet (funny, this goes for people too!). Cats don't have a strong thirst drive so they need to get a lot of their liquids from the food they eat.

As for variety, I think Brian pretty much said it. Not much to add. I think it makes the humans feel like better cat-caretakers when we mix it up for them and give them love in the form of treats!

Mooch

Thanks everyone for your replies, especially brianj, that was very informative!

After reading all this, I am surprised my breeder suggested wet food was bad, but I can only assume she thinks the average wet food out there is of poor quality/contains fillers.

I will stick with his dry food as he gets accustomed to his new environment, and then perhaps slowly introduce a wet food, depending on his tastes. (perhaps Wellness CORE?)

I can appreciate that a raw diet is likely the healthiest a cat could have, though I'll have to do a lot more research before I could commit to that.

Thanks again!