Anyone Considered Feeding Kitten Food To Adult?

[Neo_23]

I’m considering buying some kitten can food for my adult cat. Kitten foods typically have much better nutrition profiles, for example, Nutro kitten soft loaf is 47% protein, 53% fat, 0 carbs.

I feel like companies cheap out on adult foods by adding more unnecessary fillers and bringing down the protein percent while bringing up the carb percent because they can still meet AAFCO guidelines since adults are supposed to need less protein than kittens.

Anyone else ever considered this? There doesn’t seem to be a difference in ingredients, just nutritional profile.

 

[Merlin77]

I feed all my cats kitten food sometimes, and they range from 8 months of age to a year and 9 months. No ill effects from what I've seen, but it isn't their staple diet.

They do go outside, so they are very active even through winter. I'm sure that for indoor cats though, you will need to watch portions carefully because kitten food is richer in calories.

Also, I'm not sure, but isn't it more ideal to have more protein than fat? For adult cats specifically? Again, I don't know, but I'd keep an eye on the fat percentage too.

Our kitties seem to do well on their food, kitten and adult, so maybe even if you don't go full kitten food you could include it a few times a week. The possibilities are endless!

(Bright eyed and bushy tailed)

 

[Furballsmom]

I was thinking about adding some as part of the Big Guy's rotational menu of different brands and varieties, but the one I tried with him didn't go over, so I guess you could say I would have also been a "sometimes".
I don't know if I would feed it as an only source of food or not--I think if I'd do any type of food as the only thing I'd try and shift him 100% raw.

 

[Neo_23]

I feed all my cats kitten food sometimes, and they range from 8 months of age to a year and 9 months. No ill effects from what I've seen, but it isn't their staple diet.

They do go outside, so they are very active even through winter. I'm sure that for indoor cats though, you will need to watch portions carefully because kitten food is richer in calories.

Also, I'm not sure, but isn't it more ideal to have more protein than fat? For adult cats specifically? Again, I don't know, but I'd keep an eye on the fat percentage too.

Our kitties seem to do well on their food, kitten and adult, so maybe even if you don't go full kitten food you could include it a few times a week. The possibilities are endless!

(Bright eyed and bushy tailed)
View attachment 220771

Nice to hear.

It’s actually interesting because the typical adult wet food profile is 20-30% protein, 40-60% fat, 0-20% carbs. So it seems like the only real difference between adult and kitten food is the higher protein in kitten foods. Adult foods have just as much fat and more carbs.

 

[lisahe]

I do feed some kitten food to our cats: they've loved Wellness Core's kitten food since they actually were kittens (I used to feed it occasionally then, despite the carrageenan, now they've taken that out) and I've given them Nutro Natural Choice kitten food, too. They only get one, maybe two, cans of kitten food a week so it's not a very big part of their diet.

When our cats actually were kittens, our vet basically said that she didn't see kitten foods as that different in much other than calorie density. The main things she wanted me to do (which I was already going to do!) was feed wet foods with as much protein as possible and as few carbs as possible. You can see why I like her!

 

[Lari]

When my boyfriend's adult cat (8/9 years old) was staying with me for about 9 days, she was getting some of Lelia's kitten kibble and they both were sharing a 5.5 oz can a day - sometimes adult, sometimes kitten, and sometimes all life stages. I know that's not long enough for a real study, but it didn't seem to hurt her at all.

 

[Neo_23]

I did a bit more research online and it does appear that kitten food also contains more phosphorous than adult food. I guess the AAFCO guidelines recommend more of these nutrients for kittens. Just a caution to those with cats with kidney issues.

 

[chandler49]

I feed Nutro kitten soft loaf to my 5 year each day because the adult chunky chicken is out of stock. I called Nutro & they advised that both formulas are very similar. The kitten formula dry matter is 58% protein, 27% fat, less than 1% carbs.
I was concerned that the calcium would be higher in the kitten but Nutro said the adult chunky loaf & kitten formula had exactly the same % calcium.

 

[lisahe]

C chandler49 , I understand about feeding the Nutro kitten food because of the shortage: I bought a few cans of senior food! I'd checked that some time ago and found it was also pretty much the same as the regular adult food. Our cats ate it fine, though they've always tended to prefer Nutro's chunky/minced/sliced foods.

I've found very small selections of Nutro at some local stores (including chunky chicken today) but usually not more than one or two kinds of food. I find the shortage a bit mysterious! (A Petco employee seemed to suspect new labeling: he was kind of shaking his head, saying companies usually relabel fairly frequently. Basically, it seemed like he thought Nutro was due!)

 

[FakeGourmet]

Yes, I wanted to mention that as well. My vet was fine with our mama cat eating the kitten food until the kittens were grown up for adult food. She was only a year older than them. Kittens need more phosphorus in their diet. For adult cats, that isn't so good. Unfortunately, she was food insecure due to being a stray for awhile and ate and ate and got pretty fat during that time.

 

[chandler49]

C chandler49 , I understand about feeding the Nutro kitten food because of the shortage: I bought a few cans of senior food! I'd checked that some time ago and found it was also pretty much the same as the regular adult food. Our cats ate it fine, though they've always tended to prefer Nutro's chunky/minced/sliced foods.

I've found very small selections of Nutro at some local stores (including chunky chicken today) but usually not more than one or two kinds of food. I find the shortage a bit mysterious! (A Petco employee seemed to suspect new labeling: he was kind of shaking his head, saying companies usually relabel fairly frequently. Basically, it seemed like he thought Nutro was due!)

Received e-mail reply from Nutro. They are "not making any promises but expect full re-stocking of canned foods by mid-late March."

 

[lisahe]

Received e-mail reply from Nutro. They are "not making any promises but expect full re-stocking of canned foods by mid-late March."

Thank you, C chandler49 ! That's consistent with what the guy at Petco told me, too. We definitely have enough stockpiled to go longer than that but it's good to know the food should be back soon.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi all - from previous experience with this same kind of lack of product availability, then delay etc, be sure and double-check the ingredient list when it's on the shelves again. It may be a lot more than just a label change.

 

[lisahe]

Hi all - from previous experience with this same kind of lack of product availability, then delay etc, be sure and double-check the ingredient list when it's on the shelves again. It may be a lot more than just a label change.

Indeed! It is odd that there would be such sudden lack of a availability for so many foods and you are so right that recipe changes often follow shortages. (And just to be clear, the Petco guy I talked to was only speculating about even a label change.)