Best Wet Food for Kittens
Your little kitten needs the right food to grow healthy and strong. It’s not just about filling their tummy; it’s about providing the right building blocks.
A good wet food formula gives them essential nutrients, minerals, and plenty of protein. Without the right vitamins, your kitten might face health issues later on. That’s why choosing the best wet cat food is so important. It helps them become a healthy adult cat. Plus, wet food adds moisture, helping your little one stay hydrated.
Our Top Picks for Kittens
We’ve gathered the top-rated wet cat foods for kittens here, making it easy to see our favorites. You’ll find full reviews, ingredient lists, and how we tested these foods further down the page.
Best Wet Food For Kittens: HiLife Kitten Food Tender Chicken 5/5
Close 2nd Wet Kitten Food: Applaws Kitten Food Tin Tuna 4.5/5
If your cat is 12 months+ you may find some better suited reviews in our best wet cat food guide.
While this guide focuses on wet food, we want to share our favorite dry option too. Our Favourite Dry Kitten Food comes from Scrumbles. It’s made with all-natural stuff, packed with high quality, digestible chicken (77%). This provides a great meal for your tiny cat. Also, it avoids common allergens like gluten, eggs, and dairy, making it tummy-friendly.
Wet Kitten Food Reviews
We’ve put together a list of the top wet cat food options for kittens in the UK. We started by researching over 40 products. Then, we picked 5 to buy and test with our kitten group.
1) HiLife Kitten Food Tender Chicken Pouches
HiLife Kitten Wet food came out on top. It’s made from 100% natural items and loaded with protein, over 50% chicken. We really liked the flakey feel of this cat food. It was moist and flakey, perfect for small kitten mouths.
Kittens can get upset tummies easily from allergens early on. This food has no soya or GMOs. Our kitten testers ate it right up, no problems. Kitten parents also liked it best, preferring its texture, packaging, and how fresh it seemed.
2) Applaws Kitten Food Tin Tuna
Applaws Tin Tuna for Kittens is a top-tier wet cat food. Their kitten recipe is all-natural, very high in protein, and uses seafood as the main part. This food has a slightly smoother texture than the flakey HiLife, making it the softest food we tried.
Applaws also offers a tuna product for adult cats, which is much flakier, almost like a can of tuna. Our kitten testers really enjoyed this product. Their owners liked that the tins are fully recyclable. You can check the ingredients for this product against others in the table and images further down.
3) IAMS Delights Wet Food for Kittens 1-12 Months with Chicken in Gravy
IAMS Delights focuses on using real items to give kittens as many health benefits as possible. This kitten food has a high protein content from meat and costs less than some other options.
The texture of this cat food was quite different from others we tested. One kitten tester found it a bit hard to chew, which lowered its rank. All other kittens ate it fine. The owners thought it offered the best value for money, being the cheapest we looked at.
4) Whiskas 2-12 months Kitten Pouches Pure Delight Fish Selection in Jelly
Whiskas kitten pouches are very popular in the UK. We weren’t thrilled with the texture; it had a lot more jelly than we thought. Because of the jelly, we had to break up the food more with a fork before giving it to the kittens.
Our kitten testers enjoyed how fresh the product was. The kittens also liked the jelly and meat, the meat pieces were a bit smaller than IAMS. This product dropped in ranking because its natural meat and protein percentage was much lower than the other foods we tested.
How they compare
We’ve put our four top products side-by-side below. Our highest-rated product was C (5/5), shown in bold in the table.
| Name | Main Ingredients | |
| A | Applaws Kitten Food Tin Tuna | Tuna Loin 40%, Fish Broth, Vegetable Jelling Agent |
| B | IAMS Delights Wet Food for Kittens | Meat and animal derivatives (28% chicken, 6% pork), oils and fats (0.2% fish oil), derivatives of vegetable origin (0.6% beetpulp fibre), minerals. |
| C | HiLife Kitten Food Tender Chicken | Chicken (50%), yeast extract, cassava extract, minerals, sunflower oil, chicory extract (50 mg/kg), yucca extract (50 mg/kg) |
| D | Whiskas 2-12 months Kitten Pouches | (With Salmon Flavour) Meat and animal derivatives (21%, of which 100% natural), vegetable protein extracts, fish and fish derivatives (100% natural, including 4% Salmon), minerals (0.96%), various sugars. |
How we chose our shortlist
When preparing this guide, we looked into over 40 different wet cat foods. We narrowed this down to 8 products for our shortlist. Then, we cut it further to 4 products that we bought and tested with our kitten group. The 4 products that didn’t make our final cut are listed below:
- Felix As Good as It Looks Chicken
- Purina Pro Plan Nutrisavour Junior Wet Cat Food
- IAMS Delights Land and Sea Collection
- No products found.
We used these standards when choosing which wet kitten food to include:
- Ingredients – This was most important. We checked for high levels of taurine and protein, plus the right fats, vitamins, and minerals for your kitten’s growth.
- Value for money – Our reviews include a variety of prices. We believe all offer good value for the quality of ingredients.
- Reviews – We looked at what other kitten owners said. Did their kittens switch to it easily? Were the smell and texture okay?
What to look for in kitten food
When searching for wet food for your kitten, focus on specific things. Proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals are very important. Also, look for high levels of taurine. This often shows up in foods with lots of animal-based protein, like meat.
Wet cat food is often the best choice for kittens. It has more moisture, helping with hydration, and more protein. It also has fewer carbohydrates. This creates a good diet for your kitten.
- Protein – This helps build strong muscles and tissues. It supports your kitten’s growth and body development.
- Fat – Fat carries important vitamins that dissolve in it. It also gives your high-energy kitten the calories they need.
- Minerals – These help your kitten grow strong teeth and bones.
- Taurine – This is very important for good vision, healthy digestion, and proper heart muscle action. Cats can’t make taurine themselves, so it must be in their diet regularly. Look for high levels of animal proteins.
Order of Ingredients
The list of ingredients goes from most to least. Since protein is so important for your kitten, choose a wet food that lists its protein source first. Any sugars the maker might add should be listed last.
Protein Amount
Protein might be the most vital thing to check in your cat food. It makes sure your kitten is on the path to good health. Look for high percentages of named, natural proteins. The more named protein you see on the “meat and animal derivative” list, the better.
Water Content
Check the back of the wet food package for the water amount. One big benefit of feeding wet food is it helps with hydration. It’s not a replacement for a water bowl, but it’s helpful if your cat is a picky drinker.
Named Oils
Named oils, like sunflower oil, tell you the oil is natural. Look especially for fish oil. It’s good for your kitten. It helps them have healthy skin and fur, and it’s good for their heart too.
Conclusion
If your kitten isn’t eating a balanced diet, it can quickly face serious health issues. The wet kitten food formulas we listed give energy and the right extra nutrients. Kittens are like people. They need certain foods when they’re young to grow into healthy adult cats. That’s why we did our research carefully. Just remember, your kitten is still a cat — they can be picky! So if they get fussy, just try a different brand.
Would you like to test products for us?
If you own a dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, or hamster, we’d love to chat about you testing products for Cutely. As a tester, we send you products for free. You get to keep them after! In return, we ask for your thoughts on the product, what you liked or didn’t like, and some photos of your pet using it. Just send it all via email.
