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How to feed a kitten? Most articles on the Internet on this subject indirectly or directly advertise expensive premium feed. But let's face it: most families in our country cannot afford such a luxury. And I want to have a furry pet at home. In addition, no matter how superficial the food may be, imagine a situation - you have been feeding him an animal all your life. Now think, would you like to eat the same canned food all your life? Not? And why should a representative of the cat family suffer? He also wants variety in food. In addition, feeding with natural food is the closest to the type of food genetically planted by nature. And now - we will analyze in detail how to feed a kitten. And at the same time we will tell the recipe for busy people.
Age 0-30 days
Everything happens in life, and there are not rare cases when a baby is left without breast milk. We will not describe all sorts of reasons why this happened. Now the most important thing is to provide the crumbs with full nutrition for the initial starting growth.
The most common mistake is to try to feed the kitten during this period with whole cow's milk. Say, always in the villages of cats they were given water and nothing. And omit a small clarification: adult cats, although a similar product is not recommended for them.
What to do? There are several ways out:
- Buy cat milk substitute at a veterinary pharmacy.
- Dilute cow's milk with clean boiled water. The proportions are 2 to 3. That is, 3 tablespoons of milk are taken for 2 tablespoons of water.
- Buy a pack of infant formula without sugar. By the way, it will be enough for a long time.
- Find a cat nurse. But not the fact that she will accept an orphan.
As you can see, until the age of one month, the baby will have to be fed from a syringe or pipette. Do not worry, time will fly by quickly and the next period will come.
Tip. Do not try to feed the kitten up to a month with other food, otherwise you will become a regular customer of the veterinary clinic.
Age 30-90 days
As with any baby, it’s time for a cat baby to introduce complementary foods. Just do not pile a kitten in a bowl all at once. To get started, try one thing. Then watch the baby for a couple of days. Does the chair remain normal? Kitten peppy, playful, eats with appetite? So boldly continue the experiment. At the slightest sign of depression or a change in stool in a liquid state, stop giving complementary foods. Or replace the product with another one.
How to feed a kitten at this age:
- raw meat (veal, chicken, horse meat, beef)
- fermented milk products (cottage cheese, fermented baked milk, kefir)
- cereals (buckwheat, oat, millet)
- boiled vegetables (carrots, zucchini)
- boiled and raw yolks of eggs (chicken, quail)
- offal (liver, lung, heart)
The last two points are a rare delicacy, and not a constant component of the menu. For the kitten’s still weak intestines are too hard to tolerate.
General cooking rules are very simple:
- Raw meat is thoroughly frozen, then scraped or grinded in a meat grinder.
- So do with offal.
- The boiled meat is ground in a meat grinder and diluted with a small amount of broth to a mushy state.
- Boiled yolk or cottage cheese is passed through a garlic squeezer, diluted with low-fat kefir.
- Porridge is boiled in water or diluted milk. Sugar and salt are not added.
- Boil the vegetables in water and grind into gruel. Or cut into very small cubes.
In principle, those who cooked for their child will find it easier.For the menu is very similar, the cooking is also the same. The question arises: why is it necessary to grind? Because the jaw apparatus in a kitten is fully formed only by 3 months. Until this time, solid and large pieces of food are contraindicated.
Tip. Use a grater and a garlic squeezer. They are much easier to wash than a blender or meat grinder. And not everyone agrees to get and collect the unit for the sake of 30 g of food.
Age 90-150 days
At this point, the kitten has fully formed teeth and jaws. Therefore, you can forget about the grater. But you have to pick up a knife. For too large pieces will only be slobbery and thoroughly chewed, but they will not get into the stomach of the kitten.
But now it is not necessary to cook the meat and vegetable component of the menu. Of course, you still have to cook porridge, because kittens do not eat raw cereals. Raw fish is added to the diet. Strictly marine and boneless. River fish is contraindicated!
Milk is completely removed. It is replaced with low-fat cottage cheese or dairy products. You can sometimes give egg white, and raw. But teenage kittens often become indifferent to eggs in general. But at that time unexpected taste habits are formed. Therefore, it is very important now to diversify the pet menu as much as possible. Otherwise, he will get used to one product, and the rest will simply be ignored.
By the way, there are many cases when kittens after 3 months required completely non-cat products:
- corn
- honey
- chocolate
- raw potatoes
- sunflower seeds
- fresh cucumbers
- dried fruits
Every normal person understands that such nutrition does not contribute to the full development and good growth of a kitten. Some make excuses by feeding fluffy to another candy: “Well, he loves!”
Who knows who loves! But cats also have diabetes, obesity, urolithiasis, and other human diseases. And they do not arise on their own. A person feeds domestic cats, it means that he is guilty of ailments of the pet.
Want to pamper a kitten? Give him a banned non-cat product. But quite a bit and very rarely. Let it remain a delicacy or a reward, but not a permanent menu item.
Age 150 days and older
Your kitten is not at all the crumbs that appeared in the house. But also not a fully adult animal. The frequency of feeding decreases, the sizes of the pieces increase. By the way, do not feed the kitten with food from your table, at any age. Human food is too salty and oily for the animal.
How to feed a kitten now:
- raw meat
- fresh offal
- sour milk
- porridge
- broths
- raw sea fish
- fresh vegetables
As a treat, you can give all kinds of cartilage, unsalted low-fat cheese. Any bones are strictly contraindicated! They are too sharp when cracked, and with fragments can injure the esophagus or stomach of even an adult animal, not to mention the baby.
By the way, you need to teach a kitten to eat in one place from young nails. It so happens that the owners first indulge the baby, giving pieces from their plate, and then drive the adult pet, which roams around the tables. So you are to blame!
What not to give a kitten
Despite the fact that it has long been customary to feed cats some foods, we still do not recommend taking risks and shortening the life of your pet. So that before the time various diseases do not appear, you can not feed the kitten:
- sausage, sausages and similar products
- any kind of potato
- pasta
- smoked meats
- rice
- mushrooms
- canned food
- bread
- oil
- sweets
- tomatoes
Of course, nothing terrible will happen from one piece. But with the systematic use of food from this list, your kitten will receive a whole bunch of diseases and ailments, including poisoning with a fatal outcome.
Recipe for very busy people
Not every person has a fair amount of time for daily preparation of food for a kitten. What to do if sometimes after work the forces in the kitchen are almost gone? Catch the recipe, then say thank you.
You will need:
- meat grinder
- cling film
- 4 parts chicken fillet or veal
- 1 part offal
- 1 part egg yolks
- 5 parts boiled cereals
- 3 parts boiled vegetables
- free day off
Grind all this stuff in a meat grinder, then mix thoroughly. Now put a piece of mass on the spread food wrap, cover with another layer of film on top. Now pick up a rolling pin and roll a thin cake. Then, together with the film, put it in the freezer. A few of these cakes - and your pet is provided with food for a long time.
They came home from work, broke off a piece of the right size. Defrosted in the microwave or naturally. Now you can feed the kitten.
Tip. Instead of cakes, you can roll small meatballs. Only freeze them individually on a pallet, and only then pour them into a bag or container for the freezer.
Some helpful suggestions
Water. The kitten should always be within walking distance. Pure, first boiled, until about 3 months old. Then you can give raw. Just not right from the tap! Let it stand for at least 6 hours, at the same time and warm to room temperature.
A breast kitten can be replaced with cow's goat milk. Just be sure to dilute it with water. Baby food should be prepared according to the instructions on the package, but the amount of water is increased by 2 times. A feeding syringe is taken without a needle and with a soft piston stroke, so it will be easier to dose food so that the crumbs do not choke.
Up to 2 months, a kitten can be given baby food from jars, pastes and cereals instead of meat products. Older kids do not need such a menu.
Do not let your pet overeat. Kids do not know the measure and will lap from the bowl while there is food in it. No doubt, a kitten swollen like a ball touches. But digestive problems and trips to the veterinary clinic no longer cause facial attacks. For example, at the age of 1 week, 30 ml per feeding is enough. And at the age of 5 weeks - only 50 ml at a time. For kittens older than 5 months, the amount of food per feed is calculated according to the scheme of 200 g per 1 kg of live weight. That is, if the baby weighs 1.5 kg, then he needs 300 g of all food, including liquid food, at one time.
Often you can hear from some owners: "Soup soured, pour the cat." So I want to say that they themselves ate such rubbish. Still, a cat is far from a pig, and feeding her spoiled foods is not worth it. And then you are tormented to wash the tray. And it’s good if everything comes with simple diarrhea and not with more serious consequences.
And further. Kittens of any age are not given bean products. They are not absorbed by the body at all.
How to feed a kitten? Imagine that this is not a furry squeaking creature, but a human baby. From this, make up your pet’s menu. Then you definitely will not make a mistake and do no harm, and the purr will live happily ever after.
Video: how to feed a monthly kitten
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