Hi I'm new!

We have two gorgeous bengal kittens, brother and sister. We've had them just over a week I have followed guidelines on packet for feeding them but they seem really hungry, been giving them half a pouch of wainwrights wet food three times a day and leaving purina dry down, the boy eats the dry but the girl doesn't.

Is this not enough? Shall I up it to a full pouch?

Wainwrights isn't one of the cheaper wet foods if there going to be eating 6 per day. So can anyone recommend a more economical wet food, are whiskas, pets at home own brand any good ?

Thank you!

Kittens should have all the food they care to eat. Feed them several times a day. Their tummies are tiny.
If they are acting hungry, feed them more. This is a critical time in their development, both physical and mental.
Kittens burn a lot of energy.

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~ Kyenta

Most wet food brands suggest you feed dry in addition. If your girl isn't eating dry I suggest you greatly up her wet food intake because 1 pouch is nothing. My boy gets through them like they're nothing! As is already been said, kittens need a lot of food and burn it up very quickly.

I feed Whiskas kitten pouches. They are about £3.50 for 12 and I have found them to be the cheapest along with Felix. It says to feed 2 pouches a day and 4 when the kitten hits around 5 to 6 months old.

I'm not familiar with UK cat food, but in general pouches are generally not a very economic way of feeding. Usually you can get better value if you go with canned food.

A really cheap-and-dirty way to evaluate cat food is to look at the first 3 or 4 ingredients that they list, and compare them. Meat is best, meat meal is next best, grains, fruits, vegetables and by-products are worst.

You can get a much more thorough discussion of this here:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/s ... -pet-food/

Purina has a lot of different formulations, but in general they tend to be about bottom of the barrel nutritionally imo. Just because your female kitten doesn't like that particular Purina mix doesn't mean she doesn't like dry food. She might just have more discerning tastes :) I've found it usually takes trying 3-4 types of food (brands/flavors) to find 1 that they really love, but it's worth the effort in the long run, and it's also good to find several that they really love (and are good nutritionally of course). Definitely be prepared to throw out food that they don't like. It just doesn't make sense to feed cats (and especially kittens) food that you know they don't like.

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The little monsters 3

That doesn't sound enough to me.

Half packet 3 times a day I think you said which is one half packets a day? That's not near enough. Sorry I think I need to double check your post!

Dry food isn't particularly good for kittens or adult cats for that matter although I know it's useful and I use it myself on occasions but mostly only when I have to.

I would be feeding them FULL packets 3 times a day at the very least. At this age they are growing at such a pace there really is no need to hold back. I would free feed as much as they will eat.

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Oscar and Jasper (or one ear and two ears as dh calls them) black rescue mogges

RIP my sweet baby Dexter, Snow Bengal 19/5/14 to 5/3/15 and my lovely dear old friend Muskey, Brown Burmese put to rest aged 15 on 14/11/15.

Debbie

I would prefer to feed dried food but my boy has tummy trouble with at the mo so I am avoiding it for now. He is actually fed on raw mince along with high meat content cat foods such as Almo nature and lily's kitchen. But I supplement these with Whiskas kitten pouches as it'd just become too expensive.

I've heard he Sainsbury's delicious range is supposed to be good and also Sheba Terrine.

Someone also said that Butchers cat food was also pretty good quality although it looks awful. Looks like dog food and my cats wouldn't touch it.

There's also the more expensive options that have a high meat content that you can get from Zooplus. Animonda Carny is supposed to be good. If you go down that routine make sure the food is complete as some of it isn't. It should state whether it is or not.

I think you should keep your kittens for now on what they have been on with the Breeder. It's not a good idea to start swapping and changing food around willy nilly as it can really upset their tums.

When you do introduce a new food do so very gradually adding a small amount of new food to the old until you have completely changed over.

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Oscar and Jasper (or one ear and two ears as dh calls them) black rescue mogges

RIP my sweet baby Dexter, Snow Bengal 19/5/14 to 5/3/15 and my lovely dear old friend Muskey, Brown Burmese put to rest aged 15 on 14/11/15.

Debbie

I think in their early days if you can afford to spend a bit more on a good quality food, it is worth the investment as it will give them a good start in life.

Was the breeder feeding them Wainwrights? If so, my two used to have this and it did have a pretty good meat content. Pets at Home do have this on offer fairly regularly so stock up at those times to save some pennies.

Now they eat Lily's Kitchen and Hi Life, and I also feed Hendrix Royal Canin Sensitive digestion pouches and Royal Canin Sensible dry food as he has a sensitive tummy.

With dry, Jagger never used to touch dry food until I tried some different foods - we seem to have settled on Meowing Heads which again is a good quality dry and he absolutely loves it. And it agrees with Hendrix's tummy as well.

As Debbie said, always introduce new foods gradually as it will upset their tummies otherwise, but growing kittens should be fed as much as they want - when Hendrix and Jagger were kittens they were getting through about 7 pouches a day between them, but I was pretty much feeding them half their dietary intake with dry and half with wet. My understanding is that dry helps them keep their teeth clean but always make sure you have plenty of fresh water available. It also doesn't go dry and horrible while I'm at work so they have something to eat during the day now they are older. I used to go home every lunch time when they were little and needed feeding more regularly to give them lunch though.

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

They are growing, they need good quality high protein food, not cheap or economical crap !
get a proper quality food plus add raw or cooked meats to their diet too.

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The little monsters 3

I'm confused . . Sorry! I thought with cats (any in general so maybe it's not the same with Bengals?) that dry is best & then added some wet. For their teeth plus the cost of a only wet diet would be high. It sounds more reasonable to possibly try a different kitten dry food? I know my cats I fostered could be picky & quickly refuse dry but I could never afford a wet only diet with the foster cats. Just that amount may not be enough but it's in addition to dry. So perhaps try finding a dry she likes? A few breeders I talked to suggested pouring a little meat gravey over their dry food as a treat. They also said he should be getting about 3/4th can a day on top of his unlimited dry. She said the quality of the wet isn't as important as the dry since that is their main source. Your kitty may be hungry & the wet amount isn't enough as the only food source but I'd try other dry first.

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The little monsters 3

I have tried every brand of wet food that I can think of, magic will only eat Felix pouches and only in fish flavour, I have bought endless good quality wet food only to throw it away as he turns his nose up at it, so I stick with the Felix plus purina dry, he seems OK on this

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

Raiden is the same way. The more expensive the food, the more he hates it! Thankfully, I'm feeding another cat who is not particular and will finish off anything Raiden won't eat. I can't help the fact that he was first raised on the cheap dry stuff. I finally found some better food for him that he will eat, but it's been a struggle and I've wasted a ton of money.