My first thought was parasites. Has the vet tested him for worms? Pretty common in kittens. Most are born with them. A can a day is a LOT of food for one kitten! If he has not had a dewormer, perhaps just ask the vet and go that route and skip the testing? That is one possibility.

Second, yes grain free is a must. Cats have no enzymes to digest any sort of grains, so that is just filler. And drop the Purina, that is crap food.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you read: The Whole Pet Diet by Andi Brown. I found this book at my library and after reading it, bought a copy on Amazon. She explains each ingredient, what it does, why it is good for the pet, and provides recipes. Even if you don't cook for him, this will go a LONG way towards you understanding what is a good food.

Cats seldom drink water, they are meant to get all their fluids from their prey. So don't feed just dry kibble; that is really just a back up. They must have soft / canned / wet food, always.

Those you named are well known high quality foods: Blue Buffalo, Wilderness, Evo, and Wellness. For kibbles. I use Earthborn Holistics for kibble, as they use all human grade ingredients, are manufactured in a human food factory, and have never had a recall.

For canned / wet: Soulistics at PetCo has several grain free varieties. Also good brands: Weruva, Fussie Cat and Tiki Cat.


BTW, last Sunday I made a batch of Spot's Stew, from the book above. Used to make it once a month, and realized I hadn't made any in almost a year. Gosh the dogs and cats are so happy with it! Very healthy for them, too.

The Whole Dog Journal did a review of this book, and their only negative was that she doesn't discuss the need for calcium, enough. They said her recipes include sufficient calcium, that was fine, she just didn't go in to explaining it enough, for those folks who go off and create their own recipes. Not a bad review!