Those With Adult Cats And Kittens, How Do You Feed Them?

[Frank123]

I have a two year old cat (Cali) and a kitten (Oliver) around 5 1/2 months. We've had the kitten since May and for a while kept the kitten isolated in one section of the house. This made feeding simple since both the cat and kitten were fed in separate isolated areas of the house.
Just this week I let the Oliver have access to the whole house. At first I decided to feed them together in the same room. Oliver, instead of eating from his bowl, decided to go over and investigate what Cali was eating. He was not shy about pushing her out of the way and begin eating her food. Many attempts to pick up the kitten and place him in front of his bowl proved futile as he kept going back to the cat's bowl.
I then tried feeding them in separate room, but the thing is Cali is more of a grazer than eating all at once. Therefore there is always some food left over in her dish, and Oliver will immediately go over to it and eat from their.
My concern is that Oliver should be eating kitten food that's formulated for a growing kitten and adult cat food doesn't provide that.
I do know that Oliver will eat his kitten food if he has no other choice. When I leave for work in the morning, I shut Oliver in a separate section of the house and leave him with a bowl of kitten food. When I get home, the bowl is empty so I know he ate it.
What I feed them: Cali will only eat Fancy Feast, usually the pate varieties. Oliver get Instinct Original and Wellness kitten foods.
TIA for your advice.

 

[lutece]

Fancy Feast is labeled for all life stages. It's fine for Oliver to eat it. I feed Fancy Feast to both adults and kittens (I only use the pate flavors).

 

[Rhall]

I'm struggling with this as well. I have 11, 9 and 3 month old kitties. I've moved the older two to a hairball kibble as well they get canned life stages meat twice daily. I have tried to feed the youngest kitten meat but he often goes to the other two's dishes! He also has a kitten kibble but this morning he was eating the other two's kibble. I just try to do my best and don't sweat it too much. My other struggle is the other two are fed twice daily and the little guy seems hungry more frequently. I can't leave the kibble down to free feed since the other two will eat it. Everyone seems healthy and happy so it must be ok!

 

[Chrissy66]

We have been feeding Candi the Purrfect Bistro by Merrick and then been getting a couple cans of the Canidae food which she loves. Now we are only feeding her a half of can of her Canidae food along with her Vitamin Supplements along with her Turkey then slowly get her to eating Applaws Cat Food which is like a topper because she takes Thyroid Medicine. Now Nulo is a really good food if your kitty isn't allergic to anything and they have a kitten/cat food.

 

[stacydc83]

I had the same problem with Zoe a few years back. It drove me crazy, no matter what kitten food I would give her, she would ALWAYS go to Lily's, Lily's hard food, wet food, all adult matenance. I stressed myself out worrying if she was getting enough nutrition. After lots of research, and reading on here, I realized, Kitten food really isn't that important. As long a they are eating a good quality food, and plenty of it, they will do fine. Zoe grew into a healthy almost 3 year old. Just something about the adult food she wanted and kitten food was no interest to her. I just made sure she was getting enough fat and protein along with the adult food. Back then I'd sneak in extra treats to her, like freeze dried chicken.

 

[Beebster]

I had the same problem with Zoe a few years back. It drove me crazy, no matter what kitten food I would give her, she would ALWAYS go to Lily's, Lily's hard food, wet food, all adult matenance. I stressed myself out worrying if she was getting enough nutrition. After lots of research, and reading on here, I realized, Kitten food really isn't that important. As long a they are eating a good quality food, and plenty of it, they will do fine. Zoe grew into a healthy almost 3 year old. Just something about the adult food she wanted and kitten food was no interest to her. I just made sure she was getting enough fat and protein along with the adult food. Back then I'd sneak in extra treats to her, like freeze dried chicken.

So today I've been a little concerned since we ran out of the kitten dry food for our 12 week old kitten. We do have adult indoor dry cat food for my 12 year old cat Fluffy. The kitten seems to be able to eat it fine as I gave her some after I noticed she tried nibbling on it before when I would feed my older cat and she liked it. I'm hoping it's okay to continue on with the dry cat food we do have available instead of rushing out to get the kitten formulated food. Our kitten eats fancy feast wet food as well, which we still have a few cans left. She seems to cry for both types of food, so we make sure she always has plenty of dry food in between her times of having wet food.

 

[Azazel]

Cats and kittens have similar nutritional needs: high animal protein, lots of moisture, low carb. Kittens just need lots more food than adult cats. Get a good quality food and feed it to all your cat/kittens, just don’t limit how much the kittens can eat and keep your cat on their usual amount.

Note that “adult” labelled cat foods usually aren’t high quality because they are low in animal protein (the AAFCO protein requirement for adult labelled cat foods is low). They honestly aren’t even good for adult cats. Look for an all life stages food that is high in animal protein.

 

[MissClouseau]

Note that “adult” labelled cat foods usually aren’t high quality because they are low in animal protein (the AAFCO protein requirement for adult labelled cat foods is low). They honestly aren’t even good for adult cats. Look for an all life stages food that is high in animal protein.

Do some foods for kittens have extra calcium? That it would be too much for an adult cat or would that be no issue?

 

[Azazel]

Do some foods for kittens have extra calcium? That it would be too much for an adult cat or would that be no issue?

I’m not sure. Usually it’s the calcium to phosphorus ratio that we are worried with, and usually kitten foods are higher in both. I have heard that high calcium and phos values being too high can be bad for adult cats but I don’t know enough to make a judgment on it.

 

[MissClouseau]

I’m not sure. Usually it’s the calcium to phosphorus ratio that we are worried with, and usually kitten foods are higher in both. I have heard that high calcium and phos values being too high can be bad for adult cats but I don’t know enough to make a judgment on it.

I just checked Royal Canin Protein Selective (40% crude protein) and Royal Canin Kitten (34% crude protein) Calcium is shown for only the kitten one. The other adult foods I checked all had a bit lower protein than the kitten. Unclear how much of it is animal protein in either though.

Sorry to interrupt, OP. Hima's absolute favorite wet food is Naturea chicken and I would recommend if it's available where you live. Simple formula yet apparently delicious.

 

[Libby.]

My "kittens" are 3 years old now. I honestly cannot remember. When we brought them home they were 5-7 weeks old and I feed them Royal Canin's baby kibble and I think the Wellness Grain Free chicken pate that I fed my adult cats. I just fed them several times a day. And at 6 months, they were fed 3 times a day. I can't remember if we fed them in a separate room or in the kitchen with Bounder and Patches. I'm pretty sure we stayed in the kitchen to make sure that they didn't eat Bounder's or Patches' food. They still have a tendency to play musical bowls.

 

[stacydc83]

You said that its indoor dry food? That's one I would definitely shy away from for a kitten. Indoor food has less protein and fat than a normal adult food, and tons more carbs. I believe the Fancy feast is all life stages, just make sure they eat plenty. Kittens just need more than an adult, and good quality. I'd even check/compare the adult foods your looking at to the kitten foods, and see which has better ingredients and protein/fat I'm no expect, I'm still struggling trying to figure out whats right for my two, Lily is overweight, and Zoe is a tiny cat and doesn't have "time to eat" because she's so busy. All life stages is a good go to I think, and even some wet kitten food for adults isn't bad. Lily & Zoe absolutely love Whole Hearted Tuna packets for kittens and I don't mind them eating it because the difference in fat, is pretty negligible, and something about the kitten formulation is tastier to them.

 

[Rhall]

They still have a tendency to play musical bowls.

I know!!! What is that about!!!

 

[Beebster]

You said that its indoor dry food? That's one I would definitely shy away from for a kitten. Indoor food has less protein and fat than a normal adult food, and tons more carbs. I believe the Fancy feast is all life stages, just make sure they eat plenty. Kittens just need more than an adult, and good quality. I'd even check/compare the adult foods your looking at to the kitten foods, and see which has better ingredients and protein/fat I'm no expect, I'm still struggling trying to figure out whats right for my two, Lily is overweight, and Zoe is a tiny cat and doesn't have "time to eat" because she's so busy. All life stages is a good go to I think, and even some wet kitten food for adults isn't bad. Lily & Zoe absolutely love Whole Hearted Tuna packets for kittens and I don't mind them eating it because the difference in fat, is pretty negligible, and something about the kitten formulation is tastier to them.

My Fluffy is overweight as well. She's always been picky about her food, but I recently discovered she actually likes Fancy Feast pate (thanks to the new kitten). I guess I never really picked out the right wet food in the past, she would sniff the wet food in gravy and walk away, haha! So sadly I know the dry food has not helped her with her weight, but trying to change that now by incorporating wet food as well now.
I'll try looking for a better dry food for Fluffy after this next bag is almost empty. We grabbed more kitten dry food yesterday, so Eevee was quite happy when I went to fill up her dish.