because my kitten keeps eating its mother's food instead of its own and it seems to prefer it!! what do you think .... btw will keep it on kitten food ...... but didnt know weither i could mix and match the foods (as i realise it need the nutrition from the kitten food!!)
2007-03-02 00:32:20 · 14 answers · asked by soggybourbon 1 in Pets ➔ Cats
It's hard to keep them away from the adult food, but adult food is much harder to digest for the kitten...Don't let it eat too much!!
2007-03-02 00:36:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree that adult food is harder for kittens to digest, but it is hard to keep it away from the kitten. It won't typically hurt them, as long as they don't get much of it daily. Is it possible to feed the adult cat away from the kitten? I would suggest feeding the adult in another room with the door closed for a couple weeks, until the kitten gets a little older. If the kitten has too much of the adult food it may throw up or have a hard time going to the bathroom. Good luck.
2007-03-02 01:25:28 · answer #2 · answered by Ashley 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the kitten is still nursing, it's best to have both Mother and baby on kitten food because of the extra nutrition it provides.
If you don't wish to feed Mother kitten food also, then perhaps put the adult food up on a higher surface where Mom can get to it, but it's to high for baby to jump.
To much adult food will upset a kittens tummy.
2007-03-02 00:40:53 · answer #3 · answered by gracieandlizzie 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Try your best to keep it on the kitten food. I know it's hard cause when I adopted my kitten Jasper I am still having trouble trying to get him to eat just kitten food. I finally give up and said it's ok if he eats a little adult food cause he was eating quite a bit of kitten food but the problem I have mostly is keeping the adult cats out of his kitten food. They love it. But like I said try your best to get him to eat as much kitten food as possible cause it contains more calcium and vitamins that your kitten needs.
2007-03-02 01:38:47 · answer #4 · answered by Turtle 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could maybe try switching to a different cat food that is formulated for cats and kittens. I adopted my kitten from a shelter and she kept eating my cat's food. The shelter organizer recommended this food called Felidae. I used that up until about a month ago and it seemed to work just fine (though my kitten's a little chub now). Both my 8 yr old cat and the kitten ate it for at least 6-7 months. Now I have them on IAMS multi-cat and they like that as well.
2007-03-02 01:06:33 · answer #5 · answered by ziggyzp77 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So long as it's the soft adult food and not the hard food, it should be okay. The last kittens we had around here, were from a stray cat that decided to call our place home. . .anyway, she only had two kittens, and she was sooo skinny when she came and got sooo skinny after having the babies, so we were feeding her all the time, but i swear, as soon as she'd stop eating, those kittens would run over and knock her down to nurse, and they were big enough to be eating real food, so we pushed them to eat the cat food vs. nursing. . .I dunno how old they were. . .they were more than big enough tho, probably almost 2 months or so. . .and it didn't hurt them any. . .the one kitten is living with my aunt and uncle is about twice the size of one of my cats that is about 8 months older than it, so I don't think you'll cause it any permanent damage letting eat adult food, assuming its the soft,wet food. . .hard food may not be good. . .I know when I was younger, one of our kittens got into the adult hard food and choked to death.
2007-03-02 02:51:20 · answer #6 · answered by Smiley 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The kitten food might have 2-4% more protein in it than "adult" food, otherwise they are exactly the same.
The best foods you can give both cat and kitten are ones with high quality meat protein listed as the first two ingredients on the label. That means no by-product meat. That's what's in Science Diet too.
Such foods are: Natural Balance, Eagle Pack, Blue, Solid Gold, Felidae, Nature's Logic, By Nature Organic, CA Natural, Innova in dry food.
Canned foods of high quality include Wellness, Natural Balance, Innova, Avoderm, Lick Your Chops.
2007-03-02 02:08:11 · answer #7 · answered by old cat lady 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Big cat cubs in the wild drink from thier mothers milk and will have a go at any "kills" they can - in a very ineffective manner - but they will try to do what momma does. If the kittens are eating thier mums food don't worry about it. I honestly believe "kitten" formulations are just another way for a lucrative pet food industry to make a fast buck out of you.
2007-03-02 00:43:29 · answer #8 · answered by riz109 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
When I was given a kitten some years ago, I already had an old cat with a very sensitive tummy- and no kitten chow. It didn't seem to hurt the kitten to eat his food as well as her own, when I got it.
2007-03-02 01:14:43 · answer #9 · answered by Tigger 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
My vet told me that all puppies and kittens should remain on kitten and puppy food for the first year of their lives before moving onto adult food.
2007-03-02 04:15:07 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋