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What's the best food for a 6-month-old cat: wet, dry, and how much?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

What is best for a 6 month old cat - wet or dry food and how much?

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Debi Matlack

Veterinary Technician

Published on January 6th, 2016

The answer is up to you and your cat. Some cats prefer dry only, some wet only, some enjoy both. Kitten food is still needed at six months of age and will be until he is a year old. Cats are carnivores, and canned, pate-type wet food is the closest to what they would get in the wild. Dry food has to have some carbohydrates in the form of grains or vegetable pulp in order to be made into dry nuggets. Cats have a very low carbohydrate requirement and some gain excess weight on dry food. Feed the best food you can afford. My personal favorites are Science Diet and Royal Canin. Both offer excellent quality, specifically formulated diets that are nutritionally complete for your pet's life stage and condition and both offer money-back guarantees if your pet doesn't like them. Just make sure when switching to a new food to introduce it gradually. Transition your pet onto a new food by offering the old food in one bowl and a mix of 1/4 new food and 3/4 old food in another bowl next to it. Do this for a week, then offer 1/2-1/2 new/old food in the second bowl for a week. Change to 3/4 new-1/4 old for a week and gradually stop putting old food in the first bowl. By the end of the month she should be transitioned to the new food with a minimum of digestive upset.

31Pet Parents found this answer helpful

Related Answers from Veterinarians

Answered By Mariya Gugel, DVM
Veterinarian
Published on January 15th, 2018
Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Milo is adorable! At 8 months, cats typically eat food formulated for kittens, transitioning to adult food at around 10-12 months. I recommend dry food mostly, with a smaller amount of wet food offered in the morning and evening. In terms of brands, you should look for those that have an AAFCO statement, indicating that they are formulated to meet your cat's nutritional needs. Popular brands include Hill's Science Diet, Purina, and Royal Canin. I hope this helps and am happy to answer any other questions you may have!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS
Veterinarian
Published on November 9th, 2016
Boiled chicken or white fish and rice is a good quality and very digestible diet. You can even add some boiled vegetables (carrots, potatoes for example; make sure you do not give toxic ones like garlic or onions though!).
Good quality commercial diets (Royal Canin or Hills for example) are the most balanced ones; so in the long run I would recommend to choose those instead of home made diets.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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By 8 weeks old, you can absolutely start to give your kitten dry food. If they are accustomed to eating wet food, consider making the transition gradually by mixing the wet and dry foods together over 5-7 days. While it would not necessarily be harmful to eat small amounts of an adult cat food, it would be best to exclusively feed kitten food for the first year of life since these foods are balanced for growth. Some of my favorite brands of kitten foods include Science Diet ( http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=29250 ), Royal Canin ( http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=31886 ), and Purina ProPlan ( http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=31190 ), and I have included a few examples. It would be fine to give an occasional Webbox tasty stick as a treat, but avoid offering too many. I hope this helps and that all goes well!

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My 6-week-old kitten needs care. How do I feed and litter train her?

At six weeks of age, Roxy should be on her way to weaning, and you can get her used to her dry food by make a kitten mush. I would soak a high quality kitten formulated dry food in water water until soft. Then mix that with kitten formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry kitten food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until she is eating the dry kitten food only. Make sure she has plenty of water at all time, and it's quite easy to litter box train her. Simply put Roxy in the box after she eats, and make a scratching motion in the litter with your finger. She will pick up on it quickly.

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