Hill's Science Plan Kitten & Mother Mousse with Chicken & Turkey Wet Cat Food - 24x85g

Kitten & Mother Mousse with Chicken & Turkey Wet Cat Food is a complete wet food for kittens up to a year old, and for pregnant and nursing cats, made with chicken and turkey. It is the everyday Science Plan recipe for this life stage, sold without a prescription.

Key Features

• Texture: A smooth mousse, soft enough for a kitten that is only just weaning, and thinnable with warm water.
• Brain And Eyes: DHA from fish oil.
• Bones: Balanced calcium and phosphorus for growth.
• Also For: Nursing mothers, which is why Hill's sell it as Kitten and Mother.
• Pack Size: 24x85g.

Why A Mousse

• The smooth texture is the point. It suits a weaning puppy or kitten whose teeth are barely through, a small mouth, and any pet that struggles with chunks, and it can be thinned with warm water to a gruel for very young animals.
• It is also useful for an older pet with a sore mouth or a poor appetite, and for hiding medication, though check with your vet before mixing anything into food.
• Serve at room temperature. Straight from the fridge it smells of much less, and smell is most of what makes a pet decide to eat.

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. If you feed wet and dry together, count both halves towards the daily total rather than treating the wet as an extra.
• Changing over: move across gradually over about seven days rather than switching in one go.
• Storage and serving: refrigerate once opened, use within about two days and serve at room temperature, since cold food smells of much less. In UAE summer take it up after about twenty minutes.
• 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.
• 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, and the two are not interchangeable.

Currently Out Of Stock

• This size is out of stock at the moment. Message us and we will tell you when the next shipment is due, or point you at the nearest equivalent in the range.

Good To Know

• This listing is the 24x85g pack.
• Complete wet food. Can be fed alone or alongside a dry food from the same range.
• Refrigerate once opened, use within about two days and serve at room temperature.
• Keep fresh water available at all times.
• Science Plan is a non-prescription everyday food, not a veterinary therapeutic diet.
• Made by Hill's Pet Nutrition, part of Colgate-Palmolive.