Adult Cat Eating Kitten Food

[sydney]

I have an adult cat named Logan who use to be outside so he was very fit and light. He is now strictly indoors and so we got him a buddy to ply with , a 16 week old kitten named Frankie. At first Logan would eat both Frankie’s kitten dry food and his own adult food that we had in the garage for him. He stopped eating his food all together and is strictly eating the kitten food. I called the vet to ask if this was ok and they said it’s more important that the kitten gets the calories he needs and if Logan isn’t gaining weight he can eat the kitten food. However Logan is now gaining weight. Probably combo of not being outside anymore and eating the kitten food. Ideally I was thinking of switching just the dry food to adult for both and still giving Frankie the kitten wet. Think this is ok? I don’t want Logan to get fat, but I want Frankie to get what he needs. Any opinions appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
Can you provide your older cat with canned food? That change, even if just once a day and don't free feed kibble, should help him with the weight issue.

 

[sydney]

My older cat won’t eat wet at all. I’ve tried all different kinds and we won’t touch the wet.
I free feed the kitten the dry so Logan has access to that cause he won’t leave the kittens side.

 

[lisahe]

I would have suggested the same thing as Furballsmom! If Logan doesn't like canned food, then maybe the easiest thing to do is to cut back on the overall dry food and feed Frankie lots of caloric canned food? There are some canned kitten foods available but anything labeled "for all life stages" is suitable for kittens.

There's a chart here that can help with calories. Fancy Feast pates and kitten foods might be a decent (and easy!) place to start.

All that said, though, if the "adult" dry food is labeled for all life stages/ages, that would be okay to feed Frankie, too. But I'd be very careful about continuing to freefeed it if Logan has access to it all the time! Cats can gain weigh pretty quickly but trying to get them to lose it can be very difficult.

There's a whole section of articles on the site about cat food and feeding... maybe the ones there on transitioning to timed meals and/or transitioning from dry to wet food might help? (With enough time, even hardcore dry food cats can be converted... we spent a month or so switching our cats over and I'm very glad we did!)

 

[sydney]

Thank you, that was great info! I totally forgot about them”all life stages” types of food! Frankie is already eating the fancy feast kitten, so I’ll purchase a bag of all life stages dry and slowly switch them over. Thanks again!

 

[CatloverinFL]

My experience having had cats and kittens for over 40 years, is Kitten food is okay to fed, and sometimes even better to use than "Adult' foods, IMO. I have nursed many sick senior adult cats back with Kitten food, both wet and dry, when they wouldn't touch or eat anything else.

In addition, I've figured since it's for kittens who still have very sensitive digestive systems, it's easy very to digest, and easy on the stomach, in general. It does have higher fat and protein, which almost all cats, healthy and sick, totally love. I feed my 'Purina Pro Plan Kitten' Dry, and it *doesn't have any peas, pea fiber, veggies or potatoes*. It does have rice, however.

As I mentioned, I have nursed back a sickly elderly cat back to health, and still feed her this even though she is now much better and well now. She simply won't eat any other dry food and has needed to gain weight, which she has put back on her weight since she has been eating this for about one year. I also feed my 11 month old Kitten this food too.

*Here are the ingredients in the 'Purina Pro Plan Kitten' dry food that I use:

Nutritional Info
Ingredients

Chicken, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), Soybean Meal, Dried Egg Product, Poultry by-Product Meal, Soy Protein Isolate, Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Animal Liver Flavor, Salt, Phosphoric Acid, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Dried Colostrum, Taurine, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, L-Lysine Monohydrochloride, Ferrous Sulfate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Manganese Sulfate, Niacin, Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic acid, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Biotin, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Sodium Selenite. V-4628.

Caloric Content
4,342 kcal/kg, 531 kcal/cup

 

[lizzieloo]

When I had gotten a kitten my adult cat gained almost 4lbs in 2 months. The vet and I declared war on her weight gain.

So I bought a large plastic tote and drilled a small hole in one side - just big enough for a kitten to climb through. I kept the kitten food in there and the cat food up on my computer desk where the kitten couldn't jump. Friday would sullenly lay on top of the tote. haha

 

[sydney]

Thanks for the suggestions!
Frankie is already on Purina Pro Plan Kitten Dry food.

I got the cat toy Da Bird and starting playing with Logan and Frankie twice a day, making Logan jump over dog gates and on and off furniture to burn some calories!