Situations in which feeding problems arise
Most often, owners ask the question “Is it possible to feed a kitten baby food?” in a situation where, for some reason, the baby is left without a mother at too early an age. As a rule, a cat feeds its cubs with milk for up to two months. But there are cases when the mother abandons the baby, the kitten is taken from the breast early or given away by owners who do not care about the baby’s future. In this case, the new owner has a huge responsibility, because the life of a defenseless baby depends on how correctly the person feeds the kitten.
But even in a situation where a cat feeds its child itself, a caring owner should know that in order to better adapt to nutritious nutrition in the future, the baby should start feeding after three weeks of life. And after two months, when the pet’s milk teeth begin to appear, the mustachioed one will be able to gradually switch to solid food.
There are rare cases when an animal has an allergic reaction to cat food, and it is very difficult to balance the diet. Baby food will also come to the rescue. When feeding this way, it is necessary to carefully monitor the condition of the cat, its stool and behavior. Most often, such complementary foods help restore the intestinal microflora of a pet.
Consumption of baby food due to cat illness
Cats are often allergic to special foods, and sometimes it is difficult to find the right food. Symptoms such as itching, flaky skin, and hair loss indicate that your pet is not eating well. You can try giving baby food in this case. Should be given no more than once a day
and carefully watch your pet’s reaction. If the stool is normal, without a strong odor, if the cat feels normal (plays, eats, sleeps peacefully), then you can safely continue this complementary feeding.
Only at the beginning of the process should you choose products with a minimum salt content and without dry ground onions in the composition, since the digestive system cannot cope with processing such food. It’s not for nothing that they somehow managed without special feed. Most likely, such food was invented to simplify the life of breeders. Yes, it’s very convenient, satisfying and healthy, but it’s not at all necessary to feed your cat only cat food.
How did our mothers and grandmothers take care of their furry pets? That's right, many people remember that basically the cat got food that people ate. In addition to the diet there was fish, meat, and dairy products. Someone specially cooked the porridge, supplementing it with delicacies such as chicken liver, boiled fish, stewed vegetables, and stored it in the refrigerator. After all, cats ate and rarely got sick. True, if you give your cat raw meat, you need to regularly treat it for helminthiasis.
In general, you can read about milk that it is poison for cats. But how did cats in the past wait for the mistress who was milking the cow so that she could pour some fresh milk into a bowl? Cats could not have evolved so quickly and changed their entire digestive system, which only accepts balanced branded cat food. This humanity has accustomed animals, depriving them of taste preferences, to food.
Cats are predators
, no need to forget about it.
If your pet asks for a piece of raw meat, it is important to remember that before (and even now, if we are talking about the village Vaskas), the cat’s diet consists of 70-80% mice. You can’t escape nature, and no matter how hard cat food manufacturers try to balance the diet, enriching it with vitamins and minerals, nothing can replace the taste of fresh meat. Just remember that feeding raw meat or fish once a week is enough to avoid salmonellosis. It’s the same with baby food, you can’t feed it to your fluffy all the time
. Let it be as a food supplement, a quick solution to the problem if there is nothing else at hand or little time to prepare food for the cat.
Some veterinarians believe that it is still better to feed your cat cat food.
. Baby food is better suited for human babies; cats and children have different nutritional needs and different digestive systems. Onions and garlic, which are part of canned meat, should not be given to cats, because only some manufacturers do not add these ingredients.
Also salt. It is usually present in baby food in small quantities. Manufacturers of the Agusha brand, for example, do not add salt to canned meat for children. Here are some factors to consider when feeding baby food to your cat:
- Liver should be in a cat’s diet no more than 2 times a month.
- Beef and heart can be given to your pet at least every day. It is strictly forbidden to give your cat duck, goose, or pork, since fatty foods affect the cat’s liver.
- Cats do not digest the skin of birds, so when choosing canned food or when feeding them at home, you need to remove the skin from the food.
- Among vegetables, cats prefer to eat carrots, white cabbage or cauliflower.
- The following cereals can be given: buckwheat, oatmeal, rice.
- From dairy products you can give these: low-fat kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese. Milk has a bad effect on peristalsis.
- Drinking water can be raw, boiled water can be given, but rarely, or purified.
In conclusion, we can add that it is up to the owner to decide how and what to feed their own cat, based on the animal’s preferences and possibilities. If the pet does not complain about its health condition, does not scream in pain, but calmly goes to the toilet on the tray, plays, sleeps moderately and sometimes eats baby food, you can safely continue in the same spirit.
The unexpected discovery of a newborn kitten on the street or a mother cat abandoning her offspring is a reason for panic not only for beginners, but also for experienced animal owners. How to take care of the baby, how to protect it? There are a lot of opinions and advice on this matter, but the main stumbling block is proper feeding. Let's figure out whether it is possible to feed a kitten with baby food and what can be done to keep the baby healthy.
Let us immediately determine that a blind kitten on the street, even if it is in a box and covered with a cloth, is a non-resident. If you find such a find, the decision is yours! Feeding kittens is a big responsibility and literally sleepless nights.
The only chance to save a newborn kitten that is not fed by a cat is a person.
Even if you decide that you cannot help your baby, there are some things you can do:
- Try to find someone who can pay attention to feeding, taking the kitten for a while.
- Going to a clinic where the kitten will be euthanized - you may think that this is cruel, but is a slow, starving death more humane?
The next important point is the chances of survival. If you take on feeding babies that have been rejected by a cat, that is, they were kept warm, were not injured, etc. – the chances of survival are higher. If you find a blind kitten on the street, you should be prepared for the fact that it may die due to:
- Hypothermia.
- Too much hunger.
- Received injuries.
Note! Cats are very good mothers and they rarely abandon their offspring, but if this happens, the babies need to be shown to a doctor.
The fact is that a cat can leave offspring if they are not viable, for example, premature. In this case, if you decide to feed orphan kittens, all the risks and scenarios will be known to you in advance.
The chances are very low for kittens that
have not developed a sucking reflex or the digestive process has stopped
. A stop can happen for two reasons:
- The kitten has been starving for too long.
- The kitten has never suckled milk; in fact, in this case, digestion has not yet started and the chances of survival are higher.
The absence of an oral reflex is almost always tantamount to doom. A kitten may refuse to suckle if the reflex is not yet developed (prematurity) or if it is too weak (precomatose or lethargic).
Tip: In the early stages of lethargy, a kitten can be brought back to consciousness by warming it up and vigorously (but gently) rubbing the body from the limbs to the heart.
So, you have a newborn kitten, what should you do first? Decide what and how to feed. We will talk about choosing the type of feeding below; there are several answers to the question of what to feed:
- A syringe without a needle
is not the most convenient method, but it will work as a temporary solution. - A pipette
is also not the most convenient method, since the kitten knows how to suck, not
lick. - A syringe with a rubber nozzle
- a rubber band from a pipette, a piece of tube from a dropper or a rubber catheter is put on the hard nose of the syringe. The kitten will be able to suck the rubber nozzle, and with the help of the piston you will be able to conveniently control the flow of milk. Just one caveat - make sure that the kitten does not suck in the nozzle; it must hold securely. - Container for drops for nose, ears
, etc. – the tube must be thoroughly rinsed, doused with boiling water and made sure that there are no foreign odors left in it. - A special bottle for feeding kittens
- like a baby bottle, with a nipple, only much smaller.
Important! The kitten must suck, that is, make an effort to get milk. If you simply pour the mixture into your baby's mouth, he may lose his sucking reflex.
Veterinarians' opinion
Is it possible to feed a kitten baby food? Veterinarians disagree on this issue, as well as on many other things. They claim that baby food is formulated for human babies, and babies and kittens have different diets and unique digestive systems.
However, much more important are the reviews of experienced cat owners who have tested the benefits of baby food for kittens in practice. The owners note the excellent health of their four-legged friends, their cheerful, playful mood, good appetite, and all this thanks to such complementary feeding.
Is it possible to feed a kitten baby food? If we take into account the beneficial effects of the product on the health and lifestyle of small pets, it is appropriate to give a positive answer. Kittens can and should be fed baby food.
Features of feeding
It is important for owners to understand what kind of baby food can be given to a kitten. Not every formula is suitable for a baby. It is important to familiarize yourself with the composition of the product. You can feed the animal with both vegetable and meat mixture. The main thing is to avoid the following components in the finished product: salt, onion, garlic, starch. These elements are poorly digested and harmful to the cat’s body.
After the owner decides on the choice of complementary foods, the mixture must be diluted with boiled water in a 1:1 ratio. The kitten should be fed 3-4 times a day. You can use a pipette, syringe, or a special pacifier sold at a pet store. Simply carefully and slowly introduce the liquid into the animal’s mouth.
This is a painstaking and lengthy process, so the owner must be patient. The baby should be fed for at least 1.5 months. But do not forget that in the future the care shown for the kitten will return a hundredfold.
How to dilute baby formula for a kitten
Owner's instructions:
- We need to prepare the water. It must be boiled and left to stand. But ideally, it is better to pass boiled water through a filter (a regular pitcher will do). This will rid the liquid of scale particles. You can also use bottled water for children 0 to 3 years old. Before use, it is heated to 37°C.
- After this, pour the dry mixture into the water in a thin stream and mix thoroughly, ensuring that there are no lumps in the resulting “milk”.
- The mixture should be taken 2 times less than indicated in the instructions. For example, if you rely on 50 ml of water to take 10 grams, then for a kitten you need to dilute only 5 grams. All numbers are approximate, you need to read the instructions for the specific mixture!
Milk for kittens
According to most veterinarians, kittens should not be fed any milk other than cat milk. The baby's body produces a special enzyme that allows it to digest the mother's product - lactase. With age, the secretion of the enzyme is reduced to a minimum, and for the baby, milk becomes a heavy food.
If the mother cannot feed the kitten, it would be best to find a cat who is ready to raise someone else's cub. If this is not possible, the owner will have to find a worthy replacement for breast milk.
If the kitten has to be fed artificially, then store-bought dairy products are definitely not suitable for this. It contains many harmful substances that negatively affect the health of cats.
Cow's milk is one of the best substitutes for store-bought products, but it is not nutritious enough and is not rich in the vitamins and minerals necessary for the cat's body.
Goat milk for kittens will be the best option for feeding. It is more nutritious, the composition is enriched with microelements necessary for a growing pet. Goat's milk is absorbed faster by the cat's body than cow's milk. An additional advantage for the animal is that the product is low-allergenic. To feed a kitten, goat milk must be diluted a little with water.
Cat food developers also came to the rescue. In the pet store you can find special mixtures that are milk substitutes. The composition of such products fully corresponds to the composition of the milk of a nursing cat and will allow the baby to fully develop without feeling any discomfort from the substitution.
Feeding kittens of exotic breeds
Proper cat care primarily involves proper feeding. Feed and feeding should...
Breeders of British and Scottish Folds exclude carrots from the kitten menu, as it harms their color. Bengal kittens need an increased amount of protein. The owner of a small exotic should not offer his pet thick porridge.
Kittens are fed only in a belly-down position. At first, it is worth controlling the speed at which artificial milk reaches the baby, since if the sucking reflex is weak, he may choke.
If the kitten eats little formula at one feeding, then after half an hour or an hour you should try to feed it again. After feeding, be sure to wipe the baby’s tummy with a damp cloth, similar to how a cat should lick it. This is done so that he goes to the toilet, otherwise without such a massage he will not be able to do it.
Much attention is paid to the hygiene of the small cat. Artificially fed cats have a weakened immune defense, so their bedding is changed regularly, the bottle and pacifier (syringe, pipette) are sterilized, as for an infant. The mixture should be freshly prepared and at the same temperature as the kitten's body.
What food is suitable for Scottish kittens?
Are you the proud owner of a Scottish kitten and are wondering what food is best for your pet? The fact is that for the harmonious development of a baby of any breed, the features of choosing food are the same.
Today there are many developers of food for cats. Store shelves are bursting with an abundance of products. In such conditions it is easy to get lost. But the choice of manufacturer should be taken extremely seriously. Ready-made food for Scottish kittens must be balanced and contain all useful vitamins, minerals and trace elements. To do this, before purchasing a product, you need to study its composition. The main condition for high quality feed is the meat content in it. This ingredient should be in the first place in the composition. If everything is in order with this, then we study the vitamin content.
It is recommended to choose super-premium and holistic food for Scottish kittens. Each manufacturer's product line includes products in this category, but the developers themselves are different. In any case, your cat should evaluate the food you choose. If he feels good after eating, then the product is suitable for him.
Meat in Scottish kitten food
Like all kittens, Scots are ready to eat meat products by 1.5–2 months. Meat baby food for a Scottish kitten - meat puree, canned food, stew. When purchasing a product, you should also pay attention to the composition. Naturally, the food should contain a large amount of meat. But dry formulations containing meat can be consumed by a kitten after 6 months. In any case, no matter what product the pet owner chooses, the animal should like the food. It is important that it does not cause allergic reactions. Then the kitten will grow up strong, healthy and will delight its owner for many years.
Kitten and baby food
A newborn, one-month-old kitten can be fed with diluted baby formula and baby meat puree, but it is better to purchase a cat's milk substitute at a pet store.
It is best to feed a newborn kitten using a pipette or syringe tip without a needle. At one and a half months, kittens can lap and eat small pieces, and you can put a bowl for them. Read more in the article, which indicates the rules and secrets of feeding from 1 week to a year.
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