By Julie Lauzon, agr, MSc, Pet Nutrition
Starting kittens on raw as soon as possible will give them the best possible start in life. Feeding a raw diet at a young age and during growth can help prevent joint issues1 and cancer2 later in life. The transition from mom’s milk to whole food is a key moment in their life to ensure optimal gut health and weaning the kittens onto a raw diet is the best option.
When starting the weaning process, introducing Raw Fermented Goat Milk can help get kittens interested in trying something other than mother’s milk. If kittens readily enjoy the goat milk, the next step would be to mix a Pure Formula with the goat milk to create a soup consisting of 4 parts milk to 1 part raw – our Pure Turkey or Pure Chicken are great choices for that first raw meal! Progressively, as the kittens continue the weaning process, needing less food from their mother, you can increase the raw portion in the mix, offering less goat milk.
Once the weaning process has begun, it should take roughly 2 weeks of slowly increasing the food portion before they are fully weaned, no longer needing their mother’s milk. Often kittens are fully weaned, requiring no milk from mom by 6-8 weeks. At this stage, the diet should consist mostly of poultry proteins with some red meat additions in moderation. The Fare Game formulations are perfectly balanced meals for growing kittens, offering them all the nutrition they need for proper growth and development.
Kittens Feeding Tips:
- Take the food out 20 minutes before meal time to let it warm up a little because kittens often prefer food that is not directly from the refrigerator. At room temperature, the food also releases more aromas to keep them interested in their food.
- When offering red meats (pork, beef or lamb), it’s always a good idea to do so as a portion of the meal rather than the whole meal – for example 75% poultry + 25% red – this is because too much red meat can cause loose stools.
- Make sure to wash all bowls, utensils and feeding surfaces after meal time.
- Always supervise meal times.
Around 7-8 weeks, you can start to introduce some soft meal replacement bones – great choices are thawed or frozen chicken necks. Chewing bones offers mental and physical stimulation as well as nutrition for growing kittens. As they are learning to chew on bones, it’s important that we teach them to do so, correctly and safely. Holding the bones during the first chewing session can help kittens learn to chew slowly, and chewing on bones properly is a skill best learned young. Offering bones when your cat is still a kitten gives them the opportunity to learn to tear and gnaw at bones with little risk of choking. At this stage it is not very easy to bite off large pieces that would be considered a choking hazard.
Note: Always supervise all bone chewing sessions and choose bones appropriate for their size and age. Do not feed more than 2 bones per week, or there will be an imbalance in minerals.
It is wise to advise your kitten families that when their new kitten arrives home, it is normal to see some irregular stools the first couple of days, even if the new family has decided to continue with a raw diet. Those loose stools are not diet related – they are related to the stress of moving and being in a new environment, and it will pass. Fermented Raw Goat Milk can help prevent any digestive issues during this life transition.
- Grundström, Sari. 2014. Influence of nutrition at young age on canine hip dysplasia in German Shepherd dogs. Helsingfors universitet. https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/135177
- Nutritional factors and neoplasia in dogs: a data association study on the role of early age diet https://www2.helsinki.fi/sites/default/files/atoms/files/poster_nutritional_factors_and_neoplasia_in_dogs.pdf