Hi guys! i know you are probably fed up of people asking about nutrition in regards to their lovely bengals. But im rather confused??
We are receiving our beautiful silver rosetted bengal, Bailey on dec 10th and im really trying to do my research on the best food for her.
breeder is feeding her a mixture of royal instinct kitten dry food and also felix kitten wet pouches...
ive read so many bad reviews about both foods she is feeding them.
i believe royal instinct isnt great for the cats and its all down to the marketing team they have for making people believe its better than what it is. ( i work in dentistry and the same thing happens when reps for the brand teach us about different toothpastes/products when actually they are a load of rubbish)
so can anyone tell me what food they believe is the best?
im currently looking at applaws dry kitten food (chicken) and natures menu kitten wet pouches.
my head is completely boggled by the amount of brands there are out there and done alot of research into lots of different types.
money isnt a big deal as i want the kitten to have the best possible food available.
i wanted to feed raw but my partner isnt too keen.
any thoughts on this would be a huge help!
thanks!

You are in the UK, so perhaps some of our UK'ers can help you. Congratulations on your upcoming arrival. And, actually, there are never too many questions about bengals or nutrition, period. That's what this forum is for -- we do our best to help everyone out.

Hi

It's all a bit trial and error really as the cat has to like what you are feeding as well.

Some wet food ideas for you would be Thrive, meowing heads and Canagan. All good quality and high in protein with no fillers or rubbish, and all do dry food as well. Took ages for me to find something for my two they'd both eat and not go off after a few weeks, and I was happy with too.

Remember to introduce any new food gradually or your kitten could end up with diarrhoea.

Good luck!

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

Thank you, Clare.

sorry for the late reply, thank you for the advice! i asked a vet how to wean the kitten onto some new food and she mentioned to do it gradually starting at a 10% mix and so on. shes only been in her new home with us for a day and shes already setteling in so well

Another late reply, but I hope some good info.

So I'm a tad biased, but everything I've read and heard and learned about had led me here.

Wet food > dry food for cats. Cats get most of their water content from their food. While they do drink water, it's hard for a cat to drink enough water to make up for the missing moisture in dry food. We only feed dry treats and only occasionally. I'm happy to provide references and reading for others for this. I'm not going to discuss raw feeding (yet) the science on that is way way early and 99% anecdotal.

Bengals do very well on grain free wet food. Find a brand you like as I haven't seen a "bad" grain free cat food.

Cats have no need for grains, any grain marketing you see is catering to you, not your cat. Grains are cheap filler that provide almost no value to your cat at all.

Thanks for the reply.
I done a lot of research into the best food for her and decided to go with applaws kitten chicken dry food as it is grain free, 80% chicken, has a pro biotic and also hypoallergenic apparently. Also bought her the applaws kitten chicken wet food tins. I needed to make sure I also had an available cat food if I was to go to the shops as I noticed a lot of the really good kitten foods aren't very available in the uk as of yet. Sometimes they are available, sometimes there not so I need to make sure I have a constant source so I don't have to change her food if it's unavailable.
We are Feeding her using an automatic pet feeder 6x a day with dry.( 6am,9am,11am,1pm,3pm,8-9pm). Around 10g of dry per feeding. Plus when we are having dinner(around6pm) she has half a tin (40g)of wet food. We're mixing it with her old food at the moment so her tummy will be ok. The reason we are doing so many feedings is that I always find she is hungry every 2-3 hours and didn't know when to stop eating when we brought her home the first time, so thought controlled feeding times were better for her. She's so energetic I think that she may need constant portioned feedings. Is this the wrong way to go about it or should I stick to this routine?
We were going to slowly give her bigger portions and less feeding times the older she got.

Your baby certainly looks healthy! Kittens do need multiple feedings and six times a day is good as long as you're not overfeeding each time. If your baby continues to cry after eating, it's possible she is still hungry (I still get that with my 9-year old bengal. He lets me know that he wants MORE food in the bowl. He's a grazer and eats several small meals a day.) It's great to buy a food that YOU'RE happy with, but if your cat refuses to eat it -- it's no good! Hopefully your baby will enjoy the food you have chosen. I always give mine variety -- between chicken, turkey, beef, seafood. That way he doesn't get bored eating the same thing every day.

As for feeding raw -- many cat owners do it and don't mind the work that it takes. I've had cats for 55 years and they've all done fine on manufactured cat food -- back in the good old days, it was simply Puss and Boots food. Now the manufacturers have gotten better with quality foods and the best nutrients. I have a friend who feeds 13 cats. They get Friskies and seem to do fine on it. It's about the cheapest food you can buy, but if they had to eat the expensive stuff, she could afford to feed about 3 of them.

Oops, double posting.