Gerber baby food for kittens
Can Cats Eat Gerber Baby Food?
Oddly enough, neither of my boys were all that interested in baby food, except for very select flavors from very select brands (and never from jars), so my cats were never exposed to baby food except as a by-product of messes (which they ignored).
But a lot of Gerber baby food (and other baby food) is made with some pretty wholesome ingredients, including a lot of meat, leading many cat owners, particularly of cats with very sensitive stomachs or who are very picky, to wonder: can cats eat Gerber baby food?
Short answer: As long as you are minding the ingredient list (meat and few other ingredients), then yes, cats can eat Gerber baby food in small quantities. However, it’s not something your cat should eat all the time as it’s missing essential nutrients and minerals that cats need to stay healthy such as Taurine.
Table of Contents
Do Cats Like Gerber Baby Food?
This is really going to depend on the cat. Some cats have absolutely loved it and it has worked as a way to stimulate the appetite in old or ill cats (or kittens). Others (like mine) turn up their nose at it.
Gerber baby food that is made strictly with meat and water is likely to go down better than Gerber baby food made with other things. The ones made with just meat and broth are also healthier for cats compared to the ones that are made with a range of ingredients.
If a cat likes Gerber baby food, they are probably going to like it throughout their lifespan, making it a good treat for senior cats who aren’t feeling well or kittens who need some extra food to round out their usual diet.
Do Cats Hate Gerber Baby Food?
Some cats will show absolutely no interest in Gerber baby food. They may not like the texture, the smell, the taste, or the fact that they associate it with the Noisy, Messy Thing you brought home in the last year! If this is your cat, you don’t really have anything to worry about.
Gerber baby food might be useful as a treat in some instances, but it certainly should not be a regular part of your pet’s diet because it is lacking in essential minerals and vitamins.
Cat Eating Gerber Baby Food Kill My Cat?
Recall that Gerber baby food comes in a variety of flavors and combinations, so the answer to this is really going to depend on which one(s) you let your cat eat. Baby food with the following ingredients are more problematic:
- Garlic or garlic powder, onions, chives, or leeks
- Xylitol (artificial sweetener)
- Chocolate
- Raisins
- Rhubarb
- Lemon juice
Other foods can simply be harder on a cat’s stomach, such as vegetables, some fruit, and any grains, so these should also be avoided, or else your cat will be uncomfortable afterward.
Assuming you stick with only Gerber baby food that is made with meat and water, then it won’t kill your cat and in fact, can be used to entice a cat to eat. However, a cat should not live on Gerber baby food or even have it for too long or too often.
The main reason for this is that the food is formulated for baby humans, not cats, so it’s missing key nutrients.
Being too heavily deficient in taurine, in particular, can lead to blindness in cats.
It’s also needed for healthy heart function, to maintain a healthy pregnancy, and to help the immune system. Taurine deficiency is not easy to spot early or track, so once you know there’s a problem, it is more likely than not too late to do anything about it.
Gerber baby food is also missing nutrients that kittens need in order to grow up strong and healthy, so it’s best to avoid it altogether for them.
Gerber baby food is best used as a way to feed elderly or sick cats who don’t want anything to do with their normal food and you need to entice them to eat something.
Many cats who would refuse to eat their regular food may be more inclined to eat baby food because it’s soft, easy to digest, and smells good to them. In this case, you want food that is made strictly with meat and broth or water, nothing else. The chicken and broth ones are the safest since they have the simplest ingredient list: chicken, water, and cornstarch.
How Much Gerber Baby Food Can I Feed My Cat?
The jars may be small, but cats don’t need to eat very much of this stuff! This is mostly because some cats will start to expect that they will always have it and try to replace their regular food with it, which is not something you want.
Assuming you are going with the really simple meat Gerber baby food, the amount you feed your cat will really depend on the age of the cat, how much other food it’s eating, and your wallet (Gerber baby food isn’t exactly cheap after all).
Since you don’t want your cat to try to live off it, figure that you should serve part of a jar that has been warmed up and then poured over their regular food. Make sure to refrigerate leftovers.
For really stubborn cats, you can try letting them lick a bit off your finger or feeding your cat via a syringe. If that doesn’t work, it’s probably time for a trip to the vet to try to figure out why your cat won’t eat and what to do next.
Healthy cats on the other hand can have Gerber baby food as a treat.
In that case, they shouldn’t have more than a spoonful or two put on top of their regular food or put on the side. If this is what you are doing with your cat, then it’s a treat and should make up no more than 10% of their daily calorie intake.
Finally, you might just be flat out of cat food and have some baby food on hand and it’s the cat’s supper time. Giving it to them as supper once in a great while is usually fine, but don’t let yourself or the cat make a habit of it!
Gerber baby food may not be the first thing you think of when you think of cat food, but it can work as a treat, in a pinch if you have no other food, or as a way to entice a cat’s appetite.
It’s important though to make sure you are going for one that is made strictly with meat, water, and cornstarch and no other ingredients, otherwise, you risk making your cat sick. It’s also important not to let your cat live off it or they will be missing key nutrients. But as a treat, a very occasional dinner, or as a way to entice a cat to eat, Gerber baby food works pretty well.
Does your cat eat Gerber baby food?
Pam Turner
Pam is a self-confessed cat lover and has experience of working with cats and owning cats for as long as she can remember. This website is where she gets to share her knowledge and interact with other cat lovers.
Insider tip: Baby Food for Cats
by Jo // // 6 Comments
Baby food is a great tool for cats. Always keep a few jars handy! It may help stimulate the appetite when they are not eating. When cats don’t eat, they can get very sick, and then feeling sick makes them not want to eat so it is a vicious cycle. It’s no secret that even veterinary clinics use baby food for cats!
It can also be used for an occasional treat or for giving some medications. Try crushing pills and hiding them in a teaspoon of baby food- this works really well for some cats.
Other cats are just really smart and can sense when you’ve done something to their food and will refuse to touch it.
However, with very bitter tasting pills (such as Metronidazole or Amitriptyline) this will not work.
Not sure if your cat’s meds are bitter tasting? Ask your vet or the staff at the clinic.
Some medications can be compounded with flavors-this is a great option if you are having trouble medicating your cat.
Compounded medications also are usually more expensive and may need to be refrigerated.
Remember you only need to use a very small amount (i.e. a teaspoon or a tablespoon) of baby food for medications. Give this small amount with the meds in it to your cat first and make sure they eat it! Then they can have more food after.
Some cats are smart and they just know when you’ve put something in their food and they won’t touch it.
What kind of baby food can I give my kitty?Meat only. You will want to check the ingredient list to make sure it does not contain any herbs, spices, fruits or veggies- it should only say meat and water.
Some brands like Gerber & First Choice also add cornstarch, which will work if you cannot find any without cornstarch in it (and if your cat is not diabetic).
- Beech Nut Classics 1st Stage is available in chicken, turkey, or beef
- Gerber 2nd Stage is available in chicken, turkey, ham, or beef
- First Choice Stage 2 is available in chicken or turkey.
- Wild Harvest Organic 2nd Foods is available in chicken or turkey
- Earth’s Best Organics, Happy Baby/Happy Tot, & Plum Organics DO NOT have any varieties that are suitable for cats.
On its own, baby food is not nutritionally complete, so it cannot be the only thing you feed your cat.
Why not? It is just meat blended with water into a smooth puree, so it doesn’t contain important:
- Vitamins
- Minerals (like calcium)
- Fiber
- Omega 3 fatty acids (found in fish oils)
- Additional taurine
Taurine is found in meat, but cats need quite a bit of it.
Processing or freezing destroys some of the taurine in the meat that is in commercial cat foods, so these companies always add more taurine to their foods to make up for this.
The goal is to get them eating regular cat food on their own (you will need to force feed if your cat is refusing every kind of food you offer).
If your cat digs the baby food, you can try mixing it with canned cat food.
For example, if your cat supposed to be on a special prescription canned diet (such as Hill’s c/d for urinary tract issues) but doesn’t like what the vet wants them to eat, mix it about half and half with baby food.
Keep this in your kitty emergency kit!
This entry was posted in Senior Care.Jo
Certified Veterinary TechnicianBaby food in jars - can a kitten?
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01/19/2014 15:08
Kitten, 2.
5 months old, Scottish breed. Lump food from bags does not eat, only in the form of mashed potatoes. Can I give baby purees from a jar, such as veal, rabbit, turkey? Baby puree in composition, kmk is better. read the composition of cat food, offal in the composition, even from expensive manufacturers
Anonymous
01/19/2014 16:28
we give, we do not observe problems
Anonymous
01/19/2014 16:31
I think that there will be nothing terrible until the baby is small, but later it will still be necessary to switch to food for cats :)
Dyudyuka C.S.
01/19/2014 18:21
It is possible, but a better balanced nature. How will you balance baby food?
Cat. Just a cat.
.. V.I.P.
19.01.2014 18:47
I give as a treat. moreover, "Grandma's basket" is eaten, but "Tyoma" is not favored. )))
kannabesh BRILLANT
01/19/2014 18:52
IMHO is still better than prof. stern. Check out Almo Nature for kittens, it has a very good composition. And the look and smell is such that you want to eat it yourself. :-)
MลLinKล C.G.
19.01.2014 18:59
Actually offal is a useful thing for people too :)
TAIS D V.I.P.
01/20/2014 10:25
there is a lot of starch in the composition, it is not good for cats...
Baby Tsakhes C.
B.
01/20/2014 11:06
contains no starch at all. It means good for a child, but not so much for a cat? girls, are you already crazy about your cats?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:11
starch is likely to be there even if it is not specified and there is fat, moreover, 99% of that is pork, that the animal is considered death.
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:19
Where does pork fat come from in a turkey or a rabbit? and still not listed?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:25
where does pork fat come from in a turkey or a rabbit? - are you seriously asking this or are you trolling?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:27
Are you serious or are you kidding??? I give this food to the baby, believe me, the child is dearer to me than any golden cat, if 100% rabbit meat is written on the jar, is there pork fat by default? Are you a psychic or work in a factory? I ask without banter
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:43
I have a friend working in the research institute laboratory)))) and it's good if in 100% of the rabbit, there will be at least 10% of this same rabbit.
I often drag food to her, but to be honest, I generally drag everything to her and food and poop and scrapings, and even smears from intimate places. At least some sense from education and work for science))))
Anonymous
20.01.2014 11:48
According to experts, cat food contains exactly what is written on the can, but baby food is a hoax? it is not logical, they will fake it faster for cats than for children.
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:49
20.01.2014 11:54
According to experts, cat food contains exactly what is written on the bank - who told you such nonsense?))))
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:56
So the author asked - can I have baby rabbit meat from a can - you wrote that there is pork fat in rabbit meat! So in the cat's everything is perfect, but in the children's you don't understand anything?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:05
you don't understand a little, pork fat is the norm for human nutrition.
It is also found in shitty dogs and cats such as chapi, pedigree, I can’t say for cats, I don’t have them (of course they don’t indicate this, although some manufacturers honestly say this to their due), but for dogs it is pork fat, like pork itself is prohibited, they can have very serious health problems.
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:23
Write nonsense. In your opinion, it turns out that in baby food there is undeclared pork fat, but in cat-dog food (where the control is not so strict) they are not - not to die. Do you think the same Gerber does not indicate a complete list of ingredients? Yeah.
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 11:49
Great. And cat food is pure rabbit meat, right?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:53
oddly enough, even the manufacturers don't write this)))) It's just that there is human food that is dangerous to the life and health of the animal.
For many, animals are also children, and they carefully watch not only what they eat, but also what they feed their animals. It’s just that sometimes, out of ignorance and our naivety (we believe in what they write to us on the labels), we feed children and animals with outright shit.
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:55
Well then, just like you, everyone needs to have an expert girlfriend and go to her with every purchase. Alas, this is unrealistic :-)
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:19
+100 I sometimes read and go nuts. Feed advertising is very well hammered into people's heads. I have dogs from a young age were in the family, 2 pcs. They ate and we children ate, soup for us and soup for them, porridge for us and porridge for them, only the bones were bought separately for them, and then if possible. Both dogs lived a long and happy life and coat, and teeth, and activity was normal in them until the last years.
As a child, my friend’s dog also ate everything, lived for 15 years, gave birth at the same time quite a few, 10 times if not more! So it’s worth considering how harmful it is or not, I give my dog our food, the only thing I myself I eat on a diet, I don’t welcome heaps of seasonings. And we have all these feeds as a backup option if we leave, if we are very busy or sick.
Anonymous
20.01.2014 11:22
so I see, the more expensive the food, the better. In baby food, they don’t write starch, but cat food is better than cooked for children, yeah. Quality control of baby food will be better in every possible way. Everything is prepared directly for cats from selected veal, and for children from waste, according to the logic of cat lovers and dog lovers. Good brains worked, test
Anonymous
01/20/2014 11:56
Your dogs are lucky, not all of them have such reinforced concrete gastrointestinal tract to withstand soups, etc.
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 11:56
what's wrong with soup?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:08
Are you a troll?
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:12
why am I a troll? I grew up in a small town (I hope you know that not everyone lives in Moscow) and there everyone feeds their pets with homemade food. Rarely. that carries to the veterinarians in general. No problem. My cat has been living perfectly for 15 years without any problems. He eats everything from our table. I repeat the question of what is bad meat soup?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:15
My parents live 700 km from Moscow, both pensioners feed the cat either good drying or baby food.
Therefore, there is no need to blame everything on a small town - it is devastation in the minds. What's wrong with meat soup? And why is he good? Seasonings? Potatoes?
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:17
I cook soup without seasonings. And how did cats survive in the past, before the importation of cat food into our country???? ps about baby food, they also write here, all this garbage, animals are not allowed, bad. and children are normal :-)
Anonymous
20.01.2014 12:20
Before the import of cat food, they were fed with normal kind. I feed mine with meat, no food. Well, there are a lot of things written on the fence too. If I suddenly run out of cat food, I buy baby food for one or two. They will love him very much, what anonymous people write there - I don’t care much :).
I believe that there are more natural products in baby food anyway than in cat food. It's just that it's easier for my parents to fill the cat with food than to do nature - unfortunately, age is not girlish :-(
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:22
So what am I asking about - baby food, rvr? anything is better than food. Duck no, they write ononyms, they investigated it and there is pork fat. And in the cat's, selective paired veal, yeah. Argentine and)
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:24
No, grass-fed Australian :-). In any case, baby food is better, only then it’s worth adding rice + vegetables to it, and don’t forget about calcium. If you only feed them.
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:26
and you said potatoes are not allowed? what vegetables to add, advise?
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:27
Zucchini, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots - all steamed.
Or baby food vegetable. I took my Gerber and added it to the meat.
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:28
I also take a gerbera and a baby and a kitten
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:31
:-)
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:33
boom hope that there is no pork fat :-)
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:39
:-) But in general it is better to do the nature yourself;-)
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
20.01.2014 12:52
while the cat eats very selectively, I throw out half.
I will slowly start doing nature now
Anonymous
01/20/2014 12:52
:-)
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/20/2014 12:17
Another option, you can put a salad with mayonnaise on a cat, cho ush
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
19.01.2014 18:27
I didn't give baby food to animals... look at the four-legged gourmet company, there is a regular series and there is a silver line. Why don't you feed him dry food?
Vilera80 **K**
01/20/2014 12:26
Not all animals eat dry food. My kitten refused to even try until 5 months old, she perceived him as a filler for the tray and tried to write in the dryer.
She also completely ignored canned cat food. And she ate meat and baby food with pleasure, so to mix in vitamins and ballast and give her baby food once a day.
Cat. Just a cat... V.I.P.
01/19/2014 19:56
baby puree we used for our kittens in the intermediate stage (by age 1.5 -2 months) during the transition from mother's milk to "cat food". I hope you're not going to feed your cat baby food all your life, are you? You need to determine the nutritional options for yourself: balanced natural, or dry and canned food. And cats, by the way, are amazing, you can’t impose your own on them :) Our little one, for example, flatly refused dry food, spitting it out and that’s it. She does not eat, she is already 2 years old. And the older one, on the contrary, switched from wet food to drying.
VIVOCHKA ***
01/20/2014 16:12
I read the topic and it's true, the cat and dog species somehow survived before they began to deliver food to us.
How did he pull it off. Well, never in the villages did they prepare anything specially balanced for either cats or animals. My sister had cats all her childhood. When I don’t come, they cook fish for them. What kind of pastes, vitamins and so on. Yes, no one came up with that. We don’t even remember what we fed our cat, it was a long time ago. But I remember well that there were no conversations like: oh, what will we feed? What we ate, so did he. Well, of course, without salads and mayonnaise. And his poop was correct and not smelly and there were no disorders. True, the products were different, not so chemical. Maybe that's why everyone was healthier. And so are we. I remember how people fukali on our blue cling with their heads. Remember those? And they were sooo happy about the white foreign ones. Rejoiced. Where are these clowns now? Awww... I wouldn't refuse these now. Yes, probably many would not refuse. Time has passed and human stomachs have somehow adapted to chicken with bleach, boiled soy sausage, feed fish.
And animal stomachs can't adjust. And therefore, do not give, but everything is not right. And if not, then the smell from the tray is terrible. So we balance between usefulness and harmfulness. And it may look comical from the outside, but I want to do no harm to the animal. Of course, there is also overkill. And all animals are different. My friends cat has been eating whiskas for 10 years. She has already been catted a bunch of times, the coat is shiny, the eyes are burning, there is no excess weight. They have never washed it for 10 years, and the cat, despite the fact that she goes for a walk on the street, is clean as if only from the shower. And our picks. You give a little something new, then immediately the result is in the tray - you won’t get it ... But most of all I was touched by advice from an experienced owner attention ... RATS. Only special. feed and no nature! This is where I'm confused as well. This is about rats that eat everything in the wild, even inedible...
Vasja **
Open in forum
Children's vegetable puree: edible or inedible?
/ All materials
GOST not decree
The tasting of vegetable puree was conducted by specialists who have devoted many years to the development of baby food.
Their opinion can be trusted. But we want to warn you: it is impossible to guarantee that the child will like the same puree as the experts (rather, you should rely on your own taste). Much more important is compliance with safety requirements. And most of the samples we tested meet the standards. Most, but not all.
Let's deal with quality
Andrey Mosov, head of the expert department of NP Roskontrol, doctor:
“Such characteristics as sweetness, bitterness or “unexpressed taste” are subjective. Parents most often pay attention to the water content of the product. The presence of water in the composition of vegetable puree is not bad for the first feeding. You just need to understand that water is a cheaper raw material than a pumpkin.”
Irina Konokhova, leading expert of NP "Roskontrol", doctor:
“Indeed, in most of the tested vegetable purees, the mass fraction of chlorides (i.e. salt) is 0.
2%, and in the Babushkino Lukoshko, Heinz and Semper purees it is 0.3%. Perhaps this is due to the higher natural content of sodium chloride in the feedstock, although it cannot be ruled out that salt was added. However, this intake of salt with complementary foods is acceptable, given the physiological need for sodium in children. The permissible mass fraction of chlorides in children's vegetable puree is 0.6%, and this figure is not exceeded in the tested samples.
How about sterility?
Let's start with the main thing: all samples meet the requirements of industrial sterility. Pesticides were not found in any of the samples, and all samples meet the standards in terms of nitrate content.
In addition, the puree was checked for the content of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural . It was not found in any of the samples.
All preservatives and sweeteners are prohibited in baby food. We checked the puree for the presence of sorbate, benzoate, sulfur dioxide (these are preservatives) and determined the mass concentration of sweeteners.
Parents can be calm: no preservatives or sweeteners were found in the samples.
One in the jar, another on the label
Andrey Mosov, head of the expert department of NP Roskontrol, doctor:
in pumpkin puree should be 3.6% (in boiled pumpkin - 4.6%).
Summing up and drawing conclusions
Roskontrol experts noted that the manufacturer of puree Semper misleads the consumer about the presence of sugar in the composition. A mark "Bebivita" does not correspond to the actual product name - it is indicated in small print on the back of the label ("Complementary food product - mashed pumpkin and potatoes").
On puree "Spelenok" , the inscription "fortified with vitamin C" is incorrectly placed: the actual mass fraction of ascorbic acid in this sample is four times less than indicated in the label. Plus, on all samples, except for Bebivita puree, information about the nutritional value in terms of carbohydrate content is distorted.
