My rescued kittens only eat 9 Lives. What's a better food & schedule?

How lovely of you to rescue these kittens! Yes, Purina is a fine brand to feed them, but it does need to be a kitten formulated food to meet their nutritional needs. If you can't find that, I would feed them the wet food until you can get out to find some dry kitten food. I hope this helps :-)

How lovely of you to take on these kittens! Yes, you are correct they should be on kitten food and should stay on kitten food until they are one year of age. Purina kibble is a great food, just get the kitten version. To switch them to it, mix 75% old food and 25% new food, and feed them that for 3-4 days. After that time period, give them 50% old food and 50% new food mixed together. Again, feed that for 3-4 days. Then mix together 25% old food and 75% new food, and feed for 3-4 days. Finally, then give them 100% new food. This will help slowly transition them to the kitten food. If you see diarrhea at any point, add a little less new food and a little more old food to settle their stomach. Once the diarrhea is gone, continue the transition. I hope this helps!

Hello, and thank you for your question. For 12 day old kittens, they should still be on mother's milk or kitten formula. They will need to eat/be fed every 2-3 hours during the day. Here is a link that provides some detailed instructions on bottle feeding kittens: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=576 I hope this helps! Good luck with your kittens!

You can feed them canned kitten food mixed with an appropriate kitten milk replacer, such as KMR. Mix them to make a gruel or slurry. Have them examined by your veterinarian to diagnose and treat any pre-existing conditions and to deworm them. The deworming should be repeated every weeks for 3 treatments. Once they are about 8 weeks old, you can discuss vaccines or begin to rehome them.

I think the schedule is reasonable and fine to stick with. Try to keep the majority of the kitten’s being the kitten food. That way most of the food intake will support their growth and development. If you have trouble finding food in the store, you might look online as you can often find it for reasonable prices. Ideally the kittens would eat all kitten food until they are about 11 to 12 months old. You could also feed a canned food that is meant for all life stages as this will support growth as well. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Congratulations on adding the two kittens to your family!!! I always say two kittens are better than one as they play with each other so well! I generally do not limit the food on kittens this age. It is important to remember that they are forming their eating habits now so offering both canned and dry is a good thing. Certainly they are showing a preference but in general, you don't want them to become picky. I would split one small can of kitten food between both kittens at this time. I would leave the dry food out at all times for them to munch on through out the day. Make sure to be offering a high quality kitten dry food. In general, kittens don't struggle with their weight but if you notice they are starting to get heavy, then you will need to moderate food. At this age, the kittens likely eat about 1/2-3/4 cup of food per kitten per day. This will decrease when they become adults (kittens are growing so they eat more). Adult cats eat generally 3/4 - 1 cup total per day. I hope you enjoy your new kittens! Please post again if you have any further questions!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This is difficult for me to answer because I’m not sure what’s available in your location. In general, I stick with the bigger name brands because they are formulated by veterinary nutritionists. These include Purina, Hills Science Diet, Eukanuba, Royal Canin etc. Choose something that says “kitten” or “all life stages” until about 9 months, then transition to adult formula. I don’t have a preference on dry or wet so whichever you and Ginger prefer. I always also tell people that if finances are a concern, mixing half high-quality and half low-quality is perfectly acceptable. As for amount, approximately 1/4-1/3 cup or 1 -1.5 can per day (split up into two or three meals ideally). This will of course increase as he grows. Best wishes to you and Ginger!