Old cat on diet wants to eat kitten food; kitten wants diet food. Help!?

Question

My 10-yr old male cat, who's on the Iams Adult 1+ Light likes to eat our new male kitten (3 1/2 months)'s food. This doesn't surprise me b/c kitten food is higher in fat and protein, and probably tastes a lot better. What surprises me is the kitten preferring to eat the diet food! He's very young, and needs all the good fat and nutrition in the kitten food. At meals times I feed them in separate areas, but b/c the kitten is eating the diet dry food through out the day, he usually doesn't eat enough of the kitten food at meal times. How can I stop my kitten from eating the diet food? Because the older cat eats a little of his food throughout the day, I can't take the food away from him after his initial feeding. I would prefer not to have to separate them during the day when both my husband & I are at work, so they can keep each other company.

Answer 1

Hi, Try your best to feed your cat's seperatly, kitten food had too much protein in it for your older cat, it's liver will not be able to take all the protein in it's system.

Answer 2

Unfortunately you might have to seperate them if you cant train them to their own meals.

True kitten mix is very high in proteins and fats which are essential for kitten developement, While diet mixes are higher in certain chemicals and such that makes your cat essentially lose weigh.

Letting a kitten, especially, eat diet or even normal food could harm the development and cause malnutrition due to them not getting enough of what they need.

Verses the adult cat getting too much of a good thing and causing more over weigh and some assorted health issues due to too much fats and porteins.

I personally would suggest seperating them at least until u can figure out how to change their behaviors. Give them some toys and let them have fun with the toys. It might be upsetting but its better than health issues.

As far as mixing is concenered DO NOT MIX THEIR FOODS! This is even worse and could harm both animals more then you would imagine it could.

I hope all goes well! =)

(my kitten loves my cats food and vice versa and I have to keep them seperated when eating)

Answer 3

I suggest you ask your vet if you can mix the kitten and diet food(dry food) together because my vet told me to that because i have 2 over weight cats and 4 kittens----OR-----


You can feed them separately:

-lock the older one or vise versa in a room and feed the other first and leave it out for about an hour
-then do the same with the other one, then when done just put the food away until the next feeding

*twice a day with the right amount of food per serving is fine



GOOD LUCK!!!!

Answer 4

You could try to wean your older cat into scheduled feeding times and feed both cats at set times during the day. If they don't graze then when feeding time comes they will both be hungry and eat what is set out. Or go to something that is suitable for both cats such as a multicat formula

Answer 5

Yes, there's a much better idea. If you switch both cats to a good quality grainless canned food, they will both get what they need, and the overweight cat will lose weight. This will work because these better foods are more suitable for cats of any age group because they are high protein and low carb, which is what our little carnivores are meant to eat, rather than bags of corn (aka dry food). Diet food is especially heinous. Granted they may be lower in calories, but they've removed any trace of good ingredients and there's even more filler than usual. Kitten food is next to meaningless - smaller bits of kibble is the main difference. In a nutshell, most cats are fat because they've been fed too much (free-feeding or indulging them) and because they're fed dry food which is NOT appropriate food for them due to the grain/carb/sugar content. Cats are obligate carnivores who need to eat a high meat-based protein diet, which is also high in fats and low in carbs. Many vets, who are sadly ignorant on the topic of proper cat nutrition, will recommend prescription diet foods (usually dry). Cats are expected to lose weight on a starvation diet of 1/4 or 1/3 cup of food per day. Everyone is miserable in these situations. The solution is to switch the fat cat (and any others in the household as well) to a good quality canned food. Because these foods are species appropriate, the cat will lose weight at a safe, slow pace (no more than 1 pound per month). Switching foods needs to occur slowly, and if you're trying to get a kibble junkie to eat canned food, that will happen naturally. How much should cats eat? This varies. Average cats may eat between 20-30 calories per pound per day. But note that that is IDEAL pounds. Using 25 calories per day for example, an 8 pound cat could eat 200 calories per day. By the same token, a cat who weighs 20 pounds but should weigh 10 could eat 250 calories per day. You multiply the ideal weight by the calories to arrive at that figure. When working toward weight loss, it's perhaps best to start at the lower end of the scale (20). How do I find out how many calories are in cat food? See the link "Values in canned food." If it's not listed there, you'd need to contact the manufacturer.....I believe that link provides some help there as well. That's it. Easy as pie. Not only will fat cats lose weight, but it and any others in the home will reap many benefits of eating a speciies appropriate diet. See the links below for detailed information on this topic. UPDATE: Poppy lost 5 pounds and Sophie lost 2 following this plan (from October to October). Each cat gets one can (5.5oz) of Nature's Variety Instincts per day. No one is starving or miserable. My vet is happy with her progress and so am I. Only 4 pounds to go!

Answer 6

I've been though that myself. I just gave up and feed both cats the same cat food. Ask your vet what food would be best for both of your cat's to eat.

Answer 7

I think that as long as you are unwilling to separate them during the day, there probably isn't an answer to this question - unfortunately because its certainly better for a kittten to have a playmate to help it get rid of its energy and your cats sound like they are friends. I realize that this isn't really a solution for your question, but I hope someone on here can come up with something for you. It reminds me of that nursery rhyme about Jack Sprat and his wife.

Answer 8

We had the same problem with our two cats...The vet suggested that we switch to Purina Complete for two reasons...it is best for both and better than Iams

Answer 9

go to vet and get right nutrition needs because a old cat need a lot of nutrition

Answer 10

what i would do is mix the food so than they are getting both foods