A baby cat is a cat that is between 0 and 15 months old, an age that is considered a puppy. Feeding a baby cat is a bit more complicated than feeding an adult cat as they have different needs.
As with other mammalian species, such as dogs, horses or humans, cats have several management stages throughout their lives, in which they develop and go from being a fetus to an adult.
This stage is faster in cats than in other animals, since cats live for a short time and therefore they have to quickly become adults, since they have to be able to reproduce as soon as possible to give birth to more kittens.
Cats are very prone to diseases, which have a lot to do with the health of the immune system. Feeding a baby cat as effectively as possible can make the difference between raising a sick cat and raising a completely healthy cat, free from all manner of disease.
For this reason, you must take into account what a baby cat should be fed and how it is fed, because if you do not do it in the correct way, the cat could suffer irreparable damage that will accompany you for the rest of your life. Unfortunately.
The bad thing is that it is not the same to feed a baby cat as an adult cat, since the baby cat grows and needs another type of food, which has surely made you a mess.
Instructions for feeding a baby cat
- Ages of the cat: As with animals such as dogs, cats have their puppy or baby stage divided into several stages, which it is necessary to know with great care and precision, since each stage has its differentiated needs and they can make the difference between feeding a baby cat well and not doing so. Let’s start with the first stage, which is the newborn cat stage, a stage in which the cat has just left the mother’s womb and therefore still depends on her mother de Ella to stay alive. The next stage is what we will call the child stage, a stage in which the cat is no longer newborn, but is still roughly a baby who has just started consuming solid food very recently. The next stage is that of adolescence, a stage in which the cat begins to grow, its genitals begin to grow a lot and it has a development similar to that of human adolescents. Finally we have the pre-adult stage, a stage in which the cat is almost an adult,
- Newborn: The newborn is very young, since it is all cats less than 6 weeks old. The baby cat is completely helpless if he is taken away from his mother by him, so it is natural for him to drink mother’s milk. If he is no longer with his mother due to some circumstance such as abandonment or rapid adoption, give him milk with a baby bottle so that the cat can feed on milk, since he cannot take solid food yet.
- Child: A child is a cat that is older than 2 months but younger than 4 months. The cat has already grown a little, his first teeth have just come out and he is already able to consume solid food. Here you should start to introduce solid food in small quantities, so that the cat gets used to it, but most of the food should still be in the form of milk, since the teeth are still poorly developed in cats at this age.
- Adolescent: An adolescent cat already has its teeth, has already grown quite a bit and is already beginning to have its first sexual stage of reproduction. This is the time to remove the cat’s milk and give it all solid food in large quantities, since being in its growth stage, the cat will ask you for a lot of food, which should be given (without abusing). If the cat is given enough food he will grow big and strong, but if he is given too much food he will grow obese.
- Pre-Adult: This stage is when it has passed one year of age, but it is not yet fully developed. It is the feline equivalent to the 18-year-old human, who is already of legal age but has not yet finished his development. A pre-adult cat eats a little more than he is an adult, but he already eats the same food as himself. It is also the stage where the cat will have the most sexual activity, so he may have somewhat disturbed hormones.
- What do I feed him: Now you should know what to feed the cat so that it grows healthy and strong? This obviously depends on the stage, since a baby cat cannot take solid food and must drink milk in 100% of its diet. A child cat should continue to have a milk-based diet, but should be given solid food such as cat puppy food in the form of feed or pâté. At the age of adolescence, the cat can already be given more solid food such as fish, mixed with quality feed so that it has all the nutrients that its body needs. Finally in the Pre-Adult stage, he feeds him the same food as an adult, but with a little more quantity because he is still growing. Make sure you buy high-quality products, because of the essential vitamins and nutrients.
- Other things to keep in mind: Finally, you should keep in mind other things apart from food, such as that baby cats need stimulation in the genitals to be able to go to the bathroom, which mothers normally do. IF you do not have the cat’s mother, you must do it yourself to avoid her death from her. This is done by gently squeezing the genitals with a cotton ball to stimulate the discharge of waste. If you pick up a baby from the street, make sure you go to the vet first, to check if it has any disease such as feline AIDS, since stray cats are a source of diseases of this type due to the conditions in which they live and what they eat.
Tips for feeding a baby cat
- Do not wean the cat so quickly: If you have kittens and the mother at home, leave them with their mother for at least the first 3 months of life. This is due to several causes, firstly breast milk and secondly, the stimulation of parts such as the genitals by the mother. Like a human being, they need their mother for her for the first few months of life, so please her, let them be with her.
