When it comes to your kitten’s bowls, material matters—not just for durability, but for hygiene and your cat’s health.
✅ We recommend stainless steel bowls
Stainless steel is the best option. It’s durable, rust-resistant, and easy to clean and disinfect. It won’t chip, crack, or harbor bacteria like other materials can.
➖ Glass or ceramic bowls
These are also safe options but are more fragile. If you choose ceramic or glass, make sure they’re lead-free and check them regularly for cracks or chips.
🚫 We do not recommend plastic bowls
While plastic may seem convenient, it’s prone to scratches and can trap bacteria—even after washing. This can lead to digestive issues or chin acne (a common reaction in cats).
Here’s a link to the stainless steel bowls we recommend (via Amazon):
Steel Bowls for Water/Food
Ceramic Bowls for Food
For your cat's optimal health and wellness, it's important that you do all you can to protect them from dehydration.
Along with feeding raw/canned food (to which you can even add a bit more water), you should also put out several different fresh water sources throughout your home.
Many cat owners choose water fountains because they seem like a convenient and attractive way to encourage cats to drink more water. While this idea sounds good in theory, we no longer recommend using water fountains for cats — and here’s why.
1. Bacteria and Biofilm Build-Up
Even when cleaned regularly, water fountains can quickly become breeding grounds for bacteria and biofilm — a slimy layer that forms on wet surfaces. This biofilm can harbor harmful microorganisms that may lead to mouth infections, digestive issues, or urinary problems in cats. The moving water often gives a false impression of freshness, but it can actually conceal poor water quality.
2. Difficult to Clean Thoroughly
Water fountains have multiple small parts, tubes, and crevices that are difficult to reach and sanitize properly. Over time, even careful cleaning cannot fully remove residue and buildup. Plastic fountains, in particular, tend to scratch easily, creating tiny grooves where bacteria can thrive.
3. Filter and Pump Issues
Filters need frequent replacement to function effectively — and many owners forget or delay changing them. A clogged or old filter only reduces water quality.
4. Risk of Mold and Contamination
The constant presence of moisture, combined with room temperature, creates an ideal environment for mold growth. Mold spores may not be visible at first, but they can contaminate the water and pose health risks to both cats and humans.
5. Better Alternatives
We recommend using a simple wide stainless-steel bowls instead. They are nonporous, easy to disinfect, and much safer for your cat’s health.
Make sure to wash and refill the bowls daily, and place several water stations around your home to encourage regular drinking. For example, you can keep bowls near the bathroom or kitchen sinks — spots you visit often and can easily refresh throughout the day.
Use bowls of all different sizes and depths, and perhaps even some mugs or glasses of water as some cats like to drink from those.
We use a little baking soda and paper towels to clean our bowls, and we keep one near each sink in our house.
Cats also love drinking fresh running water from the tap, so feel free to let them enjoy that occasionally — just make sure the tap water in your area is safe for drinking.
Your cat's water bowl should be placed 3-5 feet away from its food bowl. Many cats cannot stand the scent of food near their water.
A well-hydrated cat is at lower risk for conditions such as bladder inflammation, bladder and kidney stones.
You can read more about the urinary track problem here:
https://exclusiveblues.com/blog/f/urinary-blockage-in-cats-a-real-emergency
We feed all our cats and kittens the highest quality food products. We do a lot of research, and network with other breeders to find the best products for our cats. Choosing a high-quality food from the hundreds of available brands can be challenging.
🐾 What We Use
We feed our adult cats Vivapets raw food once or twice a day and always keep high-quality dry food available.
For dry food, we use this excellent grain-free brand:
We feed our kittens Viva Raw Cat Food (twice a day) and Kitten Dry Food.
🍖 Dry Food
We keep dry food available 24/7 so kittens can nibble whenever they’re hungry.
🍖 Viva Raw Cat Food (fed twice daily)
We’ve done extensive research, and in our experience, raw food is the healthiest and most natural diet for kittens. It’s closer to what they’d eat in the wild and offers superior nutritional benefits.
Viva Raw Food is:
This combination of raw and dry food gives your kitten both variety and balanced nutrition from trusted sources.
🍖 If you choose raw here is the link to Viva Raw Food -
vivarawpets.com/EXCLUSIVEBLUES
🛍️ You’ll receive 20% off your first order (applied at checkout).
We recommend mainly chicken (90%), and turkey. We do not recommend the beef for kittens.
There is another website with a similar name, and that is the wrong website, please be careful (shop.vivapets.com).
Raw food can also be less convenient. If you have the time, patience, and space in your freezer raw food may be a good option. Otherwise, canned wet food once a day is fine. If you choose canned food, we recommend buying one or two cans to make sure he/she will eat it. Not all kittens like all brands.
🥫 Optional: Canned Food
Some families prefer to offer canned food instead of raw options to add variety and increase hydration. If you choose to include canned food in your kitten’s diet, we recommend the following options:
🐾Regardless of whether you choose raw food or canned wet food, feed that once or twice a day and make sure dry food is available 24/7. Young kittens need to eat frequently. Although they need relatively large quantities of food because they are growing rapidly, they have limited space in their tiny stomachs. For example, at eight weeks of age, they need to be fed about 5 meals a day.
When your kitten will be 8-10 months old, you only need to feed him/her twice a day.
A good quality kitten food has advantages over adult cat food since it has been specially formulated for a kitten's demanding nutritional requirements. Because of their rapid growth, any nutritional mistakes made during kittenhood will have severe, even irreversible, consequences. An adult cat food can be introduced at about 10 months of age.
Many people believe that feeding dry food only will help keep their cat's teeth clean and healthy, but that's often not the case. The real benefits of kibble are usually convenience (it can be left out longer and not as "gross" or smelly) and cost (often cheaper). However, there are far more drawbacks to a dry-food-only diet-it can wind up being less convenient and more expensive in the end. Kibble has less moisture than canned food, increasing a cat's risk of bladder inflammation, stones, constipation, and urinary tract obstruction. Also, dry foods are usually higher in carbohydrates and lower in protein, increasing a cat's risk of obesity and diabetes. Your best bet is to feed BOTH types! Give your cat the majority of their calories in high protein, low carb, wet food-two meals daily, not just "the occasional treat." Then, provide the rest of their daily calories with a measured amount of high-quality dry food.
Interesting Fact 🐾
If a cat goes too long without raw or wet food, they may lose interest and refuse it later on. So even if your cat loves kibble, keeping wet or raw food as part of their routine can help maintain flexibility and better long-term health.
🥣 Important Feeding Guidelines
Please do not change your kitten’s food during the first two months after bringing them home. Their stomachs are still very sensitive, and keeping them on a consistent diet helps avoid digestive issues and unnecessary stress.
You can begin to introduce new food gradually once your kitten is older than 6 months. If you decide to switch brands always check the ingredient list carefully.
Slowly mix in the new food with their current food over 7–10 days to allow a smooth transition.
⚠️ Do not mix dry and wet food in the same bowl. Serve them separately to maintain freshness and prevent texture aversion or digestive discomfort.
We do not recommend buying food online during the hot weather in summer. You can read more here:
https://exclusiveblues.com/blog/f/hot-weather-and-stomach-problems
Some cats absolutely love boiled chicken! It's a simple, healthy treat that you can share—with a few important precautions.
You can occasionally boil a chicken for yourself, using some for your salad and setting aside a portion for your kitten. Just take a piece of plain, boneless chicken, cut it into small pieces, and add a tiny bit of unsalted chicken broth or the cooking water for flavor.
Important:
Never give your cat cooked bones. They can splinter and cause serious internal injuries.
Avoid seasoning or adding salt, onions, or garlic—these can be toxic to cats.
This can be a nice occasional treat alongside their regular diet!
In addition to small amounts of plain boiled chicken, there are plenty of other treats your kitten can safely enjoy. Just remember—treats should make up no more than 10% of your cat’s daily diet.
Please supervise chewing and do not feed your cat a treat size that could be a choking hazard.
Here are a few safe and tasty options we recommend: