Hill's Science Plan Kitten Dry Cat Food with Chicken - 3KG

Kitten Dry Cat Food with Chicken is a complete dry food for kittens up to a year old, and for pregnant and nursing cats, made with chicken. It is the everyday Science Plan recipe for this life stage, sold without a prescription.

Key Features

• Brain And Eyes: DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid from fish oil, during the window when the brain and retina are forming.
• Growth: High-quality protein at the level a growing kitten needs, which is more per kilo than an adult cat.
• Bones And Teeth: Calcium and phosphorus balanced for growth rather than simply added.
• Immune Support: An antioxidant blend including vitamin E and vitamin C.
• Also For: Pregnant and nursing cats, who have similar demands.

Feeding A Growing Kitten

• Kittens need more of almost everything per kilo than an adult cat, especially protein and energy, plus DHA for brain and eye development. A kitten recipe is built for that, so feed it as it comes rather than supplementing.
• Offer food little and often, around four meals a day while small, dropping to twice daily by about a year. Kittens have tiny stomachs and high demands at the same time.
• Keep going to about twelve months, then move to an adult food. Nursing and pregnant cats can stay on kitten food, which is why these recipes are usually labelled for both.

Why Cat Food Looks Like This

• Cats are obligate carnivores: they cannot make enough taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A or vitamin D for themselves and have to take them in ready-made from food. That is why a complete cat food is not just a dog food with a different picture on the bag, and why cats should never be fed a vegetarian diet.
• Taurine is the one most people have heard of. Without enough of it cats develop heart muscle disease and go blind, which is why it appears on the front of every bag. Any complete cat food supplies enough, so this is a reassurance rather than a differentiator.
• The balanced minerals Hill's mention are about keeping magnesium, phosphorus and calcium in proportion rather than simply low, because both too much and too little cause problems.

Cats And Water

• Cats evolved to get most of their water from prey and have a weak thirst drive, so a cat on dry food alone often runs mildly short of water. That matters for the urinary tract and the kidneys, which are the two things most likely to shorten a cat's life.
• Practical fixes: more bowls than you think you need, away from the food and the litter tray; a wide shallow bowl so the whiskers stay dry; and a fountain, since many cats drink more from moving water. Adding some wet food to the day is the single most effective change.
• In UAE heat and air conditioning, check the bowls twice a day. Cats drink less from water that has sat out and gone warm and dusty.

Feeding, Storage And The Range

• How much: start from the chart on the pack by weight, then adjust to what you can feel. You should find the ribs easily under a thin layer of cover. Weigh the food rather than using a cup, and count treats towards the day's total.
• Changing over: move across gradually over about seven days. A sudden switch is the usual cause of a loose stool that then gets blamed on the food.
• Storage here: keep the bag sealed, cool and out of sunlight and use it within about six weeks of opening. UAE heat turns the fats in kibble stale faster than the packaging assumes, and that is the usual reason a pet goes off a food it used to like. Keep it in its own bag rather than tipping it into a bin.
• Who makes it: Hill's was founded by an American vet, Mark Morris Senior, who formulated a kidney diet for a guide dog in the 1940s. They run feeding trials on their recipes, which is why they can say clinically proven where most brands cannot, and the main reason the range costs what it does.
• Science Plan is not Prescription Diet: this is the everyday range for healthy pets. Prescription Diet is the separate therapeutic range for diagnosed conditions, sold on a vet's recommendation. The names overlap confusingly and they are not interchangeable, so if your vet has set a diet, ask them before changing it.

Good To Know

• Complete dry food. Nothing needs adding to a complete diet.
• Keep fresh water available at all times.
• Store sealed, cool and out of sunlight. Use an opened bag within about six weeks.
• Science Plan is a non-prescription everyday food, not a veterinary therapeutic diet.
• Made by Hill's Pet Nutrition, part of Colgate-Palmolive.