Kitten Food

Updated: 7/6/20262-4 minutes

At Purina, we know how important it is to give your growing kitten the proper nutrition. That’s why we carefully make our kitten food to have all the nutrients your kitten needs to grow and be healthy. It doesn’t matter if your kitten is a few weeks or months old: we have food made just for them. We formulate our cat food for kittens to help give your kitten the best start in life, offering a variety of flavors and textures for you to explore. Browse all Purina kitten food here to find some of the best foods for your kitten.

Why Kitten Food?

Before bringing home a kitten, understanding their unique nutritional needs is crucial. Kittens require a specialized diet to support their development and growth in their first year or so of life depending on size and breed. From a kitten’s birth to three or four weeks of age, their nutrients come from their mother’s milk or an appropriate milk replacement. Then, the kitten is weaned from milk with kitten food up to six to eight weeks’ age. Once weaned from their milk, they’ll get all the nutrition they need from kitten food until they grow into adult cats. It’s important to talk with your veterinarian to know all your kitten’s unique needs, ensuring you’re providing the best care for your new family member.

What is kitten food? Kitten food contains complete and balanced nutrition to fully support their growth and development and set the foundation for many healthy years as an adult cat.

Adult cat food differs from kitten food in various ways, including calories and nutrients. Kittens need some more nutrients and calories. Some nutrients kittens typically need more than adult cats include calcium, phosphorous, DHA, fat, protein, taurine, choline and several vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin A, copper, iodine and magnesium. For example, a weaning kitten benefits from more protein-rich food to support growth and energy, calcium for their teeth and bones, and DHA to help their brain and vision development. Also, kittens benefit from higher calories, fat and protein to support all their joyous playfulness.

Benefits of Kitten Food

Essential nutrients to support healthy growth

Quality kitten food encourages a healthy appetite
Supports development with essential nutrients like DHA for healthy brain development
100% complete and balanced for growth of kittens

Best Kitten Food

Our range of quality kitten wet food and dry food products offers you a wealth of options to choose from. Here, we highlight the various food forms we offer in kitten food to help you decide what is the best kitten food for your young cat. Still can’t decide? We also provide several dry and wet kitten food variety packs. Regardless of the type of kitten food you choose, you can feel confident knowing it contains all the nutrients essential to their growth and development.

Crunchy Kibble

Crunchy kibble can be an excellent option for older and younger kittens, depending on how you prepare it. Our crunchy kibble for kittens has smaller pieces than adult dry cat food for kittens to eat and digest more easily. When kittens start weaning until about six to eight weeks of age, dry kibble may be difficult to chew. Because of this, feeding moistened dry kibble may be recommended. Water used to moisten kibble should be warm, not hot. Use no more than one part water to three parts crunchy kibble. After that, they should be able to switch to plain dry kibble.

We offer dry kitten food featuring chicken, turkey and more in several varieties such as allergen-reducing and grain-free.

Flaked

Flaked kitten food can be a good choice for kittens starting while weaning at three to four weeks’ age. We offer flaked canned kitten food made with ocean whitefish and tuna. With flaked kitten food, your cat may enjoy hydrating, small, thin, meaty bites doused in gravy.

Ground

Kittens can eat ground kitten food around the time of weaning. Your kitten may enjoy smooth ground wet cat food, providing supplemental hydration. We offer ground kitten food featuring chicken, liver, ocean whitefish, salmon, ocean fish and tuna.

Paté

Kittens can also eat our decadent yet healthy kitten food in paté form while weaning off milk at three to four weeks’ age. We offer hydrating varieties, including salmon, ocean whitefish, and chicken.

Shredded Blend

Our shredded blend also comprises smaller pieces for kittens to digest more easily. Though the shredded blend contains crunchy and meaty pieces, you can moisten the shredded blend as instructed above for crunchy kibble from three to four weeks’ age until six to eight weeks’ age. We offer a savory chicken and rice shredded blend formula for kittens.

Learn More About Kitten Food and Feeding Recommendations

Do Kittens Need Special Food? Kitten Nutrition Requirements

Learn all about kitten nutritional requirements because they need food that’s tailored to their needs to set the foundations for a healthy, long adult cat life. Learn what makes kitten food different, such as recommended dry kitten food, when kittens drink milk, if kittens should eat human food and some other nutritional requirements. Find expert insight here.

How Much to Feed a Kitten: A Kitten Feeding Chart By Age

Wondering how much to feed your kitten? That depends on their age and whether they have been neutered/spayed or not. Kitten nutritional needs change over time. Find expert insight here into what and how much to feed a kitten by age, the best feeding schedules and how and when to transition foods.

When to Switch From Kitten Food to Cat Food

Did you know that while most cats mature out of kittenhood in about a year, larger breeds, such as the Main Coon can take a year and a half to two years? When kittens become adults, they are ready to switch to adult cat food. Our expert advice can help guide you on when and how to prepare a kitten for this transition.

Quality Ingredients

We select only dog and cat food ingredients for nutrition that helps your pet live the best life possible. If you’ve ever wondered what the ingredients in your pet’s food do, read on to find out.

View All Ingredients