Feeding Adult Food To A Kitten? / Friskies

[tigger99]

2 questions...

My kitten is 4 months old and we've been feeding him strictly kitten food... I usually rotated blue buffalo and fancy feast. My dad however recently found a big box of 48 cans of friskies for a low price at Costco and said that the kitten will eat whatever we feed him (which is pretty much true) and that paying all that money for blue buffalo is ridiculous. The thing is, this is adult food, and I know that kitten food has many more nutrients. I don't mind feeding him more out of these adult cans to even out the calorie intake and what not. I'm also just worried because while many people say that friskies isn't a horrible option, other people complain about the brand.

Basically all I'm asking is:
1) Is it okay to feed adult cat food to a kitten
2) Is friskies a reliable brand

If he reacts badly I'll immediately stop feeding these to him (and also say "I told you so" to dad lol)

 

[LTS3]

Well it's food so it technically can be fed to a kitten There's nothing in regular adult foods that would harm a kitten. Adult foods don't contain enough of the vitamins and minerals a growing kitten needs so you would have to feed a lot more adult food to a kitten than if you were to feed only kitten food.

Food that is labeled as "for all life stages" is fine to give to a kitten.

I'd stick with kitten food for now and occasionally feed a "for all life stages" food just for the variety. Canned food usually has a use by date a year or so in the future so you could just stock up on Friskies now to feed when your kitten is older. Friskies is a decent affordable brand to feed and a few varieties are availale in a large 12 or 13 oz can size.

 

[Kieka]

At 4 months he should be on kitten food longer. The thing about adult food is that it doesn't have enough fat or protein for growing kittens to fill all their needs. So you either end up with an always hungry kitten because they can't get enough out of their food or a kitten whose growth is stunted. It won't kill the kitten and plenty of kittens will do fine on adult food. But there is a difference between thriving and doing fine.

Friskies isn't my favorite cat food. It isn't horrible. It isn't great. It is a lower end wet food. Wet food is generally better and Friskies is definitely ahead of most grocery store dry foods and one of the better lower end wet. It does have meat by products which makes me a little nervous. By products in wet food isn't a bad thing but an unnamed meat makes me a little nervous. The other mark against it, IMO, is rice. Grains and cats are not friendly. Grains are fillers that bulk the food but give not nutritional value. My vet has said that grains also lead to weight retention and is a factor towards urinary problems. I do know people who keep Friskies as something in their rotation because cats tend to like it, but I have heard that a cat who eats only Friskies can have trouble accepting other brands later so I wouldn't do exclusive Friskies.

 

[Blakeney Green]

Is it actually labeled as "adult," or is it labeled "all life stages"? That makes a difference.

 

[EmmiTemmi]

The 48 pack from Costco is what I've fed my boys since they were about 5mo, and they've loved it so far. I don't have a huge problem with any of the ingredients, particularly since I'm on a budget, and the nutrition from Friskies pate is for 'all life stages' which means it's fine for kittens too.

I don't know if you're on a budget, but if so, Friskies is perfectly acceptable. I usually add in some Fancy Feast to my boys' diets as well just for variety. But Costco has such great deals, I cant resist!

 

[tigger99]

The 48 pack from Costco is what I've fed my boys since they were about 5mo, and they've loved it so far. I don't have a huge problem with any of the ingredients, particularly since I'm on a budget, and the nutrition from Friskies pate is for 'all life stages' which means it's fine for kittens too.

I don't know if you're on a budget, but if so, Friskies is perfectly acceptable. I usually add in some Fancy Feast to my boys' diets as well just for variety. But Costco has such great deals, I cant resist!

This makes me feel a lot better about it ahaha thank you so much!

 

[EmmiTemmi]

Is it actually labeled as "adult," or is it labeled "all life stages"? That makes a difference.

To my knowledge, all of Friskies' varieties are labelled for 'kitten growth and adult maintenance' or 'complete and balanced nutrition for kittens and adult cats'. So they're great for cats of nearly any age!

 

[tigger99]

Is it actually labeled as "adult," or is it labeled "all life stages"? That makes a difference.

I believe it's all stages!

 

[Blakeney Green]

I believe it's all stages!

It should be okay for your kitten, then.

Friskies doesn't have great ingredients, but it should sustain him.

 

[burningbright]

The thing about adult food is it's harder for a kitten to digest and well make it fart because of this and cause digestive problems. Having said that I had a kitten grow up with me in 1951 and as we were poor we fed it scraps and not cat food. It was healthy and lived till 17.

 

[Merlin77]

The thing about adult food is it's harder for a kitten to digest and well make it fart because of this and cause digestive problems. Having said that I had a kitten grow up with me in 1951 and as we were poor we fed it scraps and not cat food. It was healthy and lived till 17.

Really? I think that because the ingredients in adult food and kitten food are more or less the same, so they should be able to digest it properly. We don't bother buying kitten food for our kittens because there aren't enough calories in it... they might eat the occasional kitten food but other than that it's just normal food. We've fed them this way ever since they first started eating solids. No digestive problems at all.

 

[Neo_23]

The thing about adult food is it's harder for a kitten to digest and well make it fart because of this and cause digestive problems. Having said that I had a kitten grow up with me in 1951 and as we were poor we fed it scraps and not cat food. It was healthy and lived till 17.

This shouldn’t be true.

The difference between kitten and adult labels is that one meets AAFCO standards for kittens and the other for adults. This usually means that the kitten food is higher in protein and/or fat. So while I wouldn’t feed adult food as a main meal to a kitten because it may not have enough protein, it shouldn’t harm them as an occasional meal.

A lot of this “adult” vs. “kitten” stuff is a marketing scheme so companies can charge more for kitten food. I would pay attention to the ingredients and nutrient analysis instead of the labels.

 

[Neo_23]

I believe it's all stages!

All life stages is fine as a main meal for kittens. I feed this for my kitten.

 

[burningbright]

Well I say this because when my brothers were kittens I tried them on adult food which I had leftover from feeding ferals and it gave them wind and I could tell they had indigestion. But this was dried food.

 

[Blakeney Green]

Well I say this because when my brothers were kittens I tried them on adult food which I had leftover from feeding ferals and it gave them wind and I could tell they had indigestion. But this was dried food.

This sounds more like a food sensitivity to me. If the new food had an ingredient they weren't used to (for example, more red dye) or the change to a new food wasn't gradual enough, it may have upset their stomachs for that reason.

 

[burningbright]

This sounds more like a food sensitivity to me. If the new food had an ingredient they weren't used to (for example, more red dye) or the change to a new food wasn't gradual enough, it may have upset their stomachs for that reason.

You could be right or maybe the cereal content was greater than the protein in the adult food which the kitties reacted too.