for science!

As I posted earlier, I now have a kitten. His name is Boots. This is him, as of today.

I've never had a cat to raise from scratch before, so I'm determined to get it as right as possible. I'm particularly focused on not letting him get fat, since I'm convinced that's what led to Soot's early demise. But since he's a growing boy, he does need to eat a lot.

While I had only been giving him dry food for his first month with us, after I saw how much he enjoyed his post-vet good-boy wet food treat, I decided to add canned food to his diet. But which canned food to go with?? I don't know if you have been to Petsmart lately, but the selection for cat food is pretty extensive. To determine which brand/flavor of kitten food to buy for his first year of meals, I turned to science. (Also known as kitty taste tests.)

I have bought one can of every flavor of kitten food offered by every brand available at Petsmart. I've made a list (from least to most expensive, and it's actually a spreadsheet), and I'm making a note of how much Boots likes or dislikes each one on an ABC scale.

So far, Boots has not been a terribly picky eater. He likes the fish flavors the best, followed by turkey. Chicken and liver (a very popular flavor for kitten food, much to my amazement) has been met with mixed reviews. He is a huge fan of the Nutro Natural Choice brand, and pretty much inhaled both cans of that.

I went back to Petsmart today and picked up a few more cans from brands that I missed the first time around. Most of them are the fancy (expensive), allegedly super-healthy, no-grain, all-meat, no by-products brands. I wonder if he will find these super delicious, or if he will be like me and turn up his nose at healthy food. I should know within the next few days, since he goes through about a can and a half a day, and there are only 10 cans left to test. I can't wait to get my results!