Exotic Shorthair kittens and Exotic Longhair kittens will naturally wean off their mother’s milk at around 8-12 weeks of age. When these young kittens are old enough (around 8 weeks old) they will start to eat food on their own while decreasing the amount of milk they nurse from their mother.
Basic Exotic Shorthair and Exotic Longhair kitten nutrition
The basis of your Exotic Shorthair and Exotic Longhair kitten’s diet* should be a high-quality balanced premium commercial kitten food that is appropriate for their life stage and health status. By reading the label, you can discern if the brand is appropriate for the age of the kitten. We strongly advise a diet of wet food with additional water added to enhance kidney health which will lead to longevity. Please consider adhering to the diet they are on before you consider switching their diet abruptly could lead to weight loss. We want them to maintain their weight and grow like the healthy kittens they are here!
Exotic Shorthair & Exotic Longhair Kittens Are People Too!
Just like people – different Exotic Shorthair kittens and Exotic Longhair kittens have different tastes and needs. Some cats are dealing with food allergies, some are aging, and (like me) need to supplement their diets to stay healthy. The sizes of kibble also vary. I’ve got one old gentleman cat that we dearly love. We give him more soft foods than the younger cats and he maintains his health and his weight. Soft is easier on his old tender gums and teeth.
Nowadays there appears to be a trend towards more protein-based products rather than adding corn, grains, etc. And the beautiful pictures on the packaging may make you want to snack on them yourself! But when I look at the packaging ingredients I see the words meat-by products and I cringe. I grew up in Iowa around farmers with beef and dairy cattle. When a cow would die be it from old age or injury or birthing or sickness, the farmer would put a chain around the legs of the animal and pull it out to the road where a rendering company truck would load the animal and process it into… guess what? Pet foods. So if a cow has cancer or abscesses or blood pockets… even though the meat is cooked it’s not something I say yum yum to and want to eat myself much less give to my cats.
Shorthair Kitten & Exotic Longhair Kitten Food Requirements
The best food for Exotic Shorthair kittens and Exotic Longhair kittens is:
- Rich in protein from animal sources (human grade raw meat)
- Grain-free
- Low in carbohydrates
- Made with clearly named meats/fats
- Free of artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives and easy to chew
- Additionally, Exotic Shorthair food should ideally be wet food and not dry kibble
I weekly prepare quite a bit of raw meat for our Exotic Shorthair kittens and Exotic Longhair kittens and freeze it in small containers. Search the internet and you can find suggestions as to how and what to include in your mix.
You should never feed puppy or dog food to your Exotic Shorthair or Exotic Longhair kittens as they will be deficient in taurine. You can also offer some natural foods to provide variety. Natural foods include fresh human-grade raw meat such as diced-up raw lamb meat or pieces of raw chicken meat, less the bones.
We recommend you choose only human-grade raw meat because some raw meat products marketed as pet food (pet meat/pet mince/pet rolls and bone products) contain preservatives to keep them looking fresh, but these can be detrimental to the kitten’s health. There have been many pet food safety incidents linked to sulfate preservative-induced thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency, which can be fatal. You should avoid sausages, sausage meat, and cooked manufactured meats as they can also contain sulfate preservatives. Provide some moist foods in the diet regularly e.g. wet can food.
What should my Exotic Shorthair or Exotic Longhair Kitten Drink?
Ensure clean fresh drinking water is available at all times for your Exotic Shorthair or Exotic Longhair kittens. If you provide milk, do so as a treat and monitor at first as this can cause gastrointestinal upsets.
Other Foods for Exotic Shorthair & Exotic Longhair Kittens
Different types of fish such as tinned fish in spring water (e.g. sardines, tuna, and salmon), may also be offered as a treat occasionally (take care with any fish bones) but please avoid feeding fish constantly because this is not a complete diet for your Exotic Shorthair and Exotic Longhair kittens. Cooked meat such as boiled chicken can also be fed occasionally. Please ensure there are no cooked bones, onions/onion sauces, or other toxic substances present (see below).
A small amount of finely-cut vegetable matter may be offered. It is important to remember that cats are ‘obligate carnivores’, which means they require meat in their diet, so their nutritional needs cannot be met by a vegetarian diet.
Toxic foods for Exotic Shorthair & Exotic Longhair Kittens (And All Cats Really)
Do not ever feed the following substances as they are toxic to your Exotic Shorthair or Exotic Longhair kitten: (This is not an exhaustive list.) alcohol, onions, onion powder, garlic, chocolate, coffee or caffeine products, moldy or spoiled foods, avocado, bread dough, yeast dough, grapes, raisins, sultanas (including in Christmas cakes, etc), currants, nuts (including macadamia nuts), fruit stones or ‘pits’ (eg. mango seeds, apricot stones, avocado stones), fruit seeds, corncobs, tomatoes, mushrooms, cooked bones, small pieces of raw bone, fatty trimmings/ fatty foods, salt and roughly-cut vegetables.
Also, ensure your Exotic Shorthair or Exotic Longhair kitten doesn’t have access to string wrappings around rolled roasts or absorbent pads found under meat when wrapped on trays.
*The following information is general advice, but as each Exotic Shorthair and Persian (or Exotic Longhair) kitten is an individual, seek veterinary advice, particularly if your kitten has any special dietary needs or has a reaction to a standard diet.
Mon Chéri Cattery Exotic Shorthair Kitten Breeders
Mon Chéri Cattery is an Arkansas breeder of Exotic Shorthair kittens and Exotic Longhair kittens or some may call Persian kittens both pet and show-quality and a CFA Cattery of Excellence. Our Exotic Shorthair kittens for sale and Exotic Longhair kittens for sale are of outstanding pedigrees, including champions, which trace to Kings and Queens from Russia, Germany, European imports, and carefully chosen domestic bloodlines. For over 20 years we have breed Exotic Shorthair kittens that are healthy, beautiful, well-socialized and smart. Our Exotic Shorthair kittens for sale are available in the most desired shades of chocolate, calico, lilac, red, cream, bicolor, solid, tabby, colorpoint, black smoke, and the rare tortoiseshell.
*CFA or The Cat Fanciers’ Association, Inc. is currently the world’s largest registry of pedigreed cats and known as the most prestigious pedigreed cat registering association in North America. See our Mon Chéri Cattery profile on CFA.