When Do 8 Start To Transition To Dry Food?

my kitten is 8.5 months old. Do I transition at 12 months or before? Also, I’m considerinf grain free dry food. He’s eating Purina pro kitten now...any suggestions? Much thx!

Hi!
You could start adding kibble now in addition to wet food. Your baby still needs lots of food to fuel all the growth that is going on and that will continue at least until he's a year old, maybe longer.

If possible, consider giving him both wet and dry after he becomes an adult

There may be foods you like here;
CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

He’s old enough to transition. My foster kittens are able to eat dry food before they go back to the shelter for adoption which is 8 weeks old and at least 2.2lb. They will snack on it between their meals typically.
Most cats prefer wet food though. I give my cats one of the Sheba Perfect Portions each night (it’s around the size of a half a can of regular catfood) and leave out a bowl of dry food for during the day. Free feeding (always leaving it available) isn’t really the BEST practice but I got into the habit when I worked long hours. Since their vet has never had an issue with their weight, I didn’t bother to change things.
You always want to transition slowly to keep from upsetting their stomach so most vets say to start mixing the dry food with the wet food and gradually increase the amount of dry food. You could do that for a week and then either go to just dry food or give them wet food once a day and put out a measured amount of dry food for the other meal (or meals if you feed 3x a day).
I have switched all my animals to grain free dry food and wet food. It’s been great for them and isn’t much more expensive. The wet food, Sheba Perfect Portions, is grain free and very reasonably priced.
I’m pretty sure that the “kitten food” is up till 6 months. Really it’s not required because it’s almost identical to regular cat food. When I foster, the shelter provides me with the KMR (kitten formula) but when it’s time to wean them, they just give me regular canned food and dry food. However, I actually use human meat baby food when I start weaning from formula because it’s pure ground meat without fillers or chemicals and they seem to tolerate it better.

Do you mean transition to adult food or to dry food? If you're asking when to switch him to dry food only, my personal response would be: never If you can afford it, it's much healthier to keep him on high protein low carb wet food rather than dry, which is usually high carb and very dehydrating.

JoyM said:

However, I actually use human meat baby food ...

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Human meat, you say.. that's something my cats haven't tried yet ;-)

Mine never transitioned to dry and never will.

She's a witch said:

Do you mean transition to adult food or to dry food? If you're asking when to switch him to dry food only, my personal response would be: never If you can afford it, it's much healthier to keep him on high protein low carb wet food rather than dry, which is usually high carb and very dehydrating.


Human meat, you say.. that's something my cats haven't tried yet ;-)

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~ I MEANT baby food made for humans but as much as my hands are chewed on I can safely say mine have tried human meat!
Dry food is good for their teeth but I always get high quality dry food because some companies use shortcuts. Even if it says “grain free” or something else that sounds good, read the ingredients! If it doesn’t have meat listed as the first 2 ingredients, I don’t buy it. Ingredients are listed in order of most used to least used. Cats (unlike dogs) are obligate carnivores- they are totally meat eaters. So if the majority of the food is made of corn meal, it’s not doing them a bit of good.
Speaking of human meat, I currently have a 5wk old foster kitten on my lap as I type and he is alternating between chewing on my hand and tapping the screen. If my punctuation is off, it was edited by this little guy.

LOL

The old idea that dry food is better for their teeth actually is dated and unfounded. I had my Jasmine on dry only for the first 9 years of her life because of this reasoning but her teeth were just as good her last 8 years on all wet food as her first 9 on dry

6 Reasons why dry food does not clean your cat’s teeth - Anita Kelsey - Cat Behaviourist

My 12 year old cat eat dry kibble his whole life until recently. Blue Buffalo sensitive stomach the last several years which is round kibble the size of a small pea. Whenever he threw up his food, it came out the same way it went in ... round, pea sized kibble. I really don't know if cats can get any teeth cleaning benefits from different shapes of dry kibble but I can say with relative certainty that mine wasn't getting any from that round kibble.

The fact that kibble companies expect people to believe that their over processed and starchy dry food can provide the same benefits to cats’ teeth as raw bone would in the wild is offensive. Anyone who has watched a cat tear into a raw bone will know that the idea that kibble cleans teeth is a scam.

I would consider either keeping him on wet or a combination of wet and dry. There really is no need to switch to dry as far as the cat is concerned. Dry is cheaper which is a consideration for most of us. Grain free can also be a scam. Many simply replaced the grain with things like peas and potatoes so they can say it is grain free. You would want a dry that isn't loaded up with a lot of fillers.

Jwa - Actually, speaking of, here's a thought for the future that you could look into further if you wish. Some members feed raw chicken wings, or hearts or gizzards with the specific intent of promoting dental health

If you go for raw chicken hearts etc, you may want to cut them up with your kitchen scissors rather than a knife. We had an elderly cat who was found of squid. Scissors made it possible, using a knife was dangerous for our fingers.

Kflowers said:

We had an elderly cat who was found of squid.

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fond, not found! She was retired and didn't hunt.

lol

It's never a good time to switch to dry. But if you must I hope you can feed him a bit of wet food still (with warmed up water mixed in). The path to good dental health can be achieved through regular teeth brushing and dentals when needed.