Raw food diet for 12-week old kitten? {article}
Question by 
: Raw food diet for 12-week old kitten?
My husband and I just brought home a 12-week old Siamese kitten. His breeder feeds her cats and kittens good quality dry and wet foods, but I would like to introduce our little guy to a raw food diet. We discovered (after years of numerous vet visits) that manufactured cat foods (especially the dry kinds) tend to be lacking certain nutritional components, so we switched our cats to a raw-food (meat) diet, and both regained their full strengths and only needed to go to the vet once a year for their check-ups and shots. It was amazing how well this switch worked. My question is, how should I go about switching our kitten to this type of diet. The reason I ask this is because we’ve only ever “switched over” adult cats, not a kitten. Kittens aren’t just “miniature cats”, and have their own specific nutritional requirements, so I want to be sure of how to do this before we dive in head-first. Also, how much should we feed him each time?
“old cat lady”: I feed my adult cats various fresh, organic meats (chicken, turkey, rabbit, etc) as well as the same quality of fresh organ meats.
Best answer:
Answer by Máire Siobhán
Ask your vet!!!! Puh-leeze!
Why don’t you check with your VET instead of the idiots on here?!? I see so many wrong answers to really easy things here that I can’t believe anyone would even consider asking something this important on YA
What do you think? Answer below!
My Siamese cat Simon is… The Asian Assassin!
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Category: cats
Because of their special nutritional requirements, I would be afraid to go to a raw food diet until she is older, at least 6-8 months. Maybe someone else will be able to advise you otherwise.
Don’t feed him that shit, give him what the breeder told you too!
At three months of age there are no dangers from a kitten eating raw food. You don’t mention what you use for your other cats’ food and I’m sure it’s just fine for the kitten – especially since your other cats are thriving on it.
It’s the highest quality protein in the highest quantity you can give him and that’s what cat’s are meant to eat.
Kittens don’t need anything special added to that food. The raw meat would have been what the mother weaned them to at six weeks.
It shouldn’t be a problem “switching” him if he has been used to some canned meat. Kittens prefer meat to dry food any day.
As long as you make sure his need for Taurine is met, and all the other needs as well, it’s all good.
You could switch him over, as one should,gradually. My kitten loves raw meat and just took to it immediately, but rule of thumb says little bit added in first, then a bit more and a bit more every few days until it’s all raw.
Generally kittens just have a higher need for protein than adults do.
Check these sites: (for amounts, frequency, etc)
http://rawfed.com/myths/cats.html
You will find there are great health benefits to raw feeding.
Here’s a link and a chart that should help you out with what kittens need. As you’ll see, it’s no different from adults, it’s just that some quantities are slightly higher. Mainly protein.
Energy Requirements for Kittens and Adult Cats
Age kcal/lb body wt
Kittens: 10 weeks 113
20 weeks 59
30 weeks 45
40 weeks 36
Adult Cats: Inactive 18
Active 20-30
Pregnant 45
Lactating* 56–145
Mother cats don’t hunt “kitten mice” to feed their young, they feed them the same thing they eat. You can feed your kitten whatever you are feeding your adult cat, just feed the kitten more. Lots more. Growing kittens need lots and lots of calories because they are growing.
Here’s a bunch of websites if you are looking for more information. I like the first one for kittens (Gold Coast Ragdolls) because she shows exactly what she feeds her kittens with pictures. The other sites are just basic info sites and such.
http://goldcoastragdolls.com/MyOwnCatFood.htm
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catnutrition.org/
http://www.rawfedcats.org/
http://www.felinespride.com/
http://www.felinefuture.com/
http://www.felineinstincts.com/index.htm…
http://www.raisingcatsnaturally.com/
http://www.blakkatz.com/index.html
http://www.holisticat.com/
http://www.mypetcarnivore.com/rawfeeding_basics.htm