My kitten is having a hard time eating purina pro plan for kittens. He only eats it when I mix it with sardines. I made some home food today for him, no salt, anything! Just a good chicken and he smelled it and didn't even try it out... so now I'm thinking maybe he doesn't like chicken. (Pro plan is chicken based)
Hi Nathaly! I'm not a vet but I'm happy to offer some insight. If you recently brought your kitten home, it may be worth finding out what he was fed before. Some kittens struggle with new food if they've been weaned on something they really like. You could try getting some of that food and mixing it with the purina pro plan to get him used to it. Another option is to find a fish-based food topper he likes. Sardines are okay in moderation but they're really high in fat (and sometimes salt), so it might impact the protein-fat balance in your kitten's diet.
If that's not the case, then it could certainly be that he doesn't really have a taste for chicken. Are you feeding him wet food or dry food? If you're feeding dry food, wet food may be of more interest because it tends to have a stronger smell (maybe part of why he likes the sardines). Pro Plan also has plenty of flavors, so it might be time to try a different one. It sounds like he likes fish! The important thing is to find something he likes and will eat enough of to sustain his growth at this point. You can always try introducing other food once he's reached full size.
The homemade food was a good idea to see if you could capture his interest with it. Just keep in mind that homemade diets are tough to get right, nutritionally speaking, especially for kittens. I'd recommend getting a variety pack of wet kitten food so you can try a couple different flavors to see what he likes. It's not a bad idea to rotate through a few flavors to keep him from getting too picky.
Hope that helps!
- Kate
@kate Hiii!!! I appreciate the insights! Actually, I spoke with the lady who gave me the cat and she was feeding him with Royal Canin for kittens. I bought a bag and mixed the food, now he is eating more and more! Yesterday, he finished all of it during the night. I also bought different flavors for wet food, different fishy flavors and he likes it. However, I'm not sure it was the food cause I filled two different plates, one for royal canin and the other one with pro plan to make a test. By the end of afternoon, he ate from both plates... I was giving him a vitamin with taurine for small cats until he gets vaccinated next week and suspended this vitamin like two days ago so, I kinda think It was the vitamin instead of the food, maybe?