Feeding your Bengal kitten/cat a high quality food is extremely important as this affects their growth, health and of course, that gorgeous rosetted or marbled coat. This can be in the form of dry, wet (canned), raw food or a mixture of any of the 3 types.
Here at KW Bengals, we use a mixture of all 3. We feed our older kittens and adult cats Purina Pro Plan (different formulas are shown in the photos below) and this is left down at ALL times for them, in order to be able to “snack” throughout the day if they’re hungry. They also receive different types of raw 4 days per week. Some examples of the raw food brands we use are from Big Country Raw and Bold by Nature. We feed them a variety of flavors from chicken to duck to kangaroo. We absolutely love giving them different types of flavors and nutrients as this helps (kittens especially) with not developing allergies to certain foods/meats and also has different nutrients they need to continue growing healthy and strong. They also do receive wet food for the remaining 3 days of the week – the days they don’t get raw. This gives them the best variety of nutrients and vitamins as well as helping to make sure they take in enough moisture. For both raw and wet food, we feed them 2x per day – once for breakfast and once around dinner time. How much we feed them is dependant on their weight, needs, activity level and age.
As an example, we will feed each of our older kittens and our adults approximately 1/8 of a raw patty each (the patty is approximately 1lb, depending on the company) or 1/4 of a can of wet food (the total can is approximately 155 grams). However, with our younger kittens starting out on raw and wet food, we feed them as much as they want. We do this because a kitten will not overeat. Yes, they will eat and of course will make sure they’re full but you don’t have to worry about kittens overeating 😊 also, because their stomachs are smaller than adults, they may take longer to eat the same amount of food. I’ve noticed our kittens tend to take breaks while eating their wet or raw, where as our adults eat everything at once – usually.
For younger kittens (the ones born in our cattery), at approximately 3-4 weeks of age, we start introducing kitten specific wet food – mixed in with kitten formula – to make it easier for them to eat as well as making things easier on their tiny digestive systems. Once they are used to eating the wet food with formula, we slowly remove the formula (a little every other day) until it’s only wet food. This usually can be done successfully in about 2.5 weeks. Once they reach 8-9 weeks – dependant on the individual kitten – we will start introducing dry food as well as a few different raw options/proteins.
Water… are they getting enough??
Cats and kittens both need to be drinking lots of water, multiple times per day. While we do start our young kittens off with “bowls” of water to make things easier for them, we also have multiple fountains throughout our home. Without any prompting at all, our kittens will start using the fountains as soon as they can reach comfortably (usually around 6 weeks). So far, the photo below – Catit Pixi Fountain – is our favorite fountain as it’s extremely quiet (doesn’t scare the kittens), has a blue light – which makes it possible to view the water level at all times and due to the replaceable filter, your cat(s) will always have clean water to drink. There is also a “smart version” of the Pixi Fountain that can be controlled/viewed through a downloaded app on your phone.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding feeding your Bengal cat and/or kitten, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at anytime! We would be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions 😊