Discover our Kitten Growth Program
Kittenhood is an amazing period as you watch this tiny meowing baby grow, learn, and evolve. While this exciting time is filled with discoveries, it’s also the most delicate stage of your kitten’s life.
Within a year, their bones will solidify and their brain will mature at an incredible pace so they can progress from being dependent on their mums into curious, playful and confident young cats. And with the right support we can help provide them the perfect foundations for a healthy life.
ROYAL CANIN® Kitten Growth Program: a product range that grows with your kitten.
It is crucial to support your kitten’s needs with their greatest ally — the right food. Feed them a diet that takes into account the immaturity of their digestive and immune system, the fragility of their tiny teeth and their specific nutrients and calories needs. That’s why, we have created ROYAL CANIN® Kitten Growth Program, a stage-based feeding solution created for all kittens up to one year old to feed their specific physical and nutritional needs.
Let’s review these phases to better understand how a kitten-specific diet can make a difference to your cat’s future health.
From birth to 3 weeks
Neonate Phase
At this intense but brief stage, your kitten sleeps… a lot. After two weeks they’ll start to practise clumsy and cute walk moves, slowly learning how to coordinate their steps. This is an intense period of adaptation during which they start to interact with their new world, while the amount of maternal antibodies progressively decreases in the milk and the kittens’ own antibodies level is still low. Don’t panic, ROYAL CANIN® Babycat milk is here to help, with a formula that contains highly digestible proteins to help optimize assimilation, and carefully selected nutrients to help support their natural defenses. ROYAL CANIN® Babycat milk has adapted similar lactose content to the queen’s milk and doesn’t contain starch (which cats can’t completely digest), to avoid upsetting their fragile baby digestive system.
From 3 weeks to 4 months
Socialisation Phase
As they become more autonomous, kittens start learning and exploring more and here comes the time of social skills development! With all these changes, milk alone no longer provides enough energy and nutrients to sustain their new behaviour.Your kitten will need to transition slowly to ROYAL CANIN®Mother & Babycat kibbles. Their first solid food, which is energy-dense and packed with nutrients.
From the eighth week, your kitten will reach the peak of their play game as they start running and climbing. It’s a vital period to build their most impressive skill — being able to keep their balance effortlessly on any lead. For this, they need food that supports their vision and their cognitive and muscle development. ROYAL CANIN®Mother & Babycat is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids such as DHA that helps supporting your kitten’s retinal and brain development and has a high energy content to help assist their growth.
But remember, even if your kitten doesn’t fit in the palm of your hand anymore, they’re still a kitten and their digestive system is fragile, so they need specific food that are highly digestible to help support their growth and development without upsetting their digestive system.
Nutrition for the Socialization Phase
From 4 months to 12 months
Adolescence Phase
From 4 to 12 months, kittens enter the last stage of their growth. At this stage your kitten’s growth will slow down as they mature into a well-proportioned cat. Your kitten is now ready to transition to a new diet, one that can support the strengthening of their immune functions and the development of their body structure. ROYAL CANIN® Kitten is rich in antioxidants, such as Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Lutein, and Taurine that help support a better immune response after vaccination.
Depending on the breed, your kitten will reach adulthood between 12 to 15 months. Your vet is the best person to advise you on exactly when this stage will happen for your pet and the best nutritional option.
Nutrition for the Adolescence Phase
Developed by vets
Designed by veterinarians in our Research & Development centres
Breeder tested
Checked with breeders to help ensure excellent nutritional benefits
Pet approved
Tested by 284 kittens worldwide
Brain development
What is at stake:
The first year is an intense and key development time for the maturation of your kitten’s brain, vision, and behavioural systems.
Nutritional answer:
A formula enriched with Omega-3 fatty acids (DHA) which are scientifically proven to support brain development.
Immunity system support
What is at stake:
After weaning, the maternal immune system protection declines overtime, and your kitten will need support to build their own strong immunity.
Nutritional answer:
A formula with balanced nutrients and adapted energy intake to support the development of their healthy immune system.
Microbiome support
What is at stake:
Kittens have a delicate digestive system. Their gut microbiota is slowly adapting from maternal or substitute milk to solid food. The development of their digestive enzymes, and their intestines is ongoing.
Nutritional answer:
A combination of prebiotics (MOS) & highly digestible proteins to help promote a healthy balance of intestinal microbiota for digestive health.
Weight management
What is at stake:
Weight issues can start early for kittens and can cause serious damage to their future health and wellbeing. Healthy habits, set early, are key to support your pet for life.
Nutritional answer:
A formula packed with the right nutrients and the right dose of energy intake to help satisfy their appetite while fulfilling their growing nutritional needs without compromising their weight.
Mixed feeding: an essential part of your kitten's diet
As your kitten grows, their senses of smell, taste and mouthfeel are also developing–and mouthfeel is a serious matter for a cat around mealtime. Texture is an important part of their meals' experience; it strongly contributes to spark their curiosity and appetite. By offering them a variety of sensorial experiences you can make their feeding time even more stimulating. For each growth stage, dedicated dry and wet food come with their own set of benefits for your pet’s health.
A range packed with responsibility
We’re leading the way towards sustainability with our new range of packaging. Discover how we’re working to help ensure that our packaging doesn’t go to waste and learn about our commitment to become certified as carbon neutral by 2025.