What do I do about food when you have a small kitten and 2 older kittens who will need adult food soon?

Question

I have two 9 month old kittens who will be going off kitten food soon. I also have just taken in a stray, now 12 weeks old. Stanley, one of my older kittens, is already pretty big and I am worried than if he eats kitten food he will continue to get much bigger than he should. How do I keep the older cats from eating the kitten food that the little one needs?

They will all continue with kitten food until the oldest are a year old. I fear that Jasmine the oldest female will be jealous of the baby girl, Alix, being able to eat seperately. It has taken about three weeks to get Jasmine to accept Alix, Jasmine has just now allowed Alix on the bed to sleep at night.

Answer 1

I'm going to refer you to Old Cat Lady's answer given to the question I linked to below.

And what the heck, my answer to it as well.

Answer 2

In my house we had a similar problem with bringing in a kitten with two cats, already nearing senior's age. We placed the foods in two seperate places but it did not matter. The 19 year old cat ate more of the kitten food than the kitten! She stuck to the adult stuff and would not even touch the kitten food. The middle cat was just a piggie when it came to both. She did not care, just ate a bunch of both and gained a lot of weight. My advice, place the kitten food in an area where you are to keep an eye on it and simply shoo the older cats away. Eventually, they'll learn that they've got a new food to be interested in and the youngest one won't need the kitten food for much longer.

Answer 3

Feed ALL of your kittens the 'kitten food' until they are a year old ... feed the younger kitten 'separately' after the two older ones are eating 'adult food' ... Stanley NEEDS that 'kitten food' until he's a year ... he may be a 'larger than normal cat' or he may have just reached his 'size' early and still need the 'kitten food' because he's still 'developing' on the INSIDE. Just put the younger kitten and his food and water dish in a room and CLOSE THE DOOR so he can eat in 'peace' ... and keep him from eating the 'adult food' in the same way ... Your cats will be HAPPY if you DO IT RIGHT ... they'll all feel 'very spoiled' by you and not get upset at all if you do the 'separation' from the time the older kittens are one year old.

Answer 4

I would simply seperate my cats during meal time. I have a six week old kitten, and I give her small amounts of food several times a day, at the same time I give my older cat more tempting food (wet or moist) on top of the dryer, and they don't bother each other's stuff.

Answer 5

I wonder what the manufacturers of all the "niche" foods would have to say about the problem - they created this mess and are driving cat owners crazy with their "kitten", "indoor" and "senior" foods.

All cats, at whatever age, need cat food with high quality meat protein for 60% of their diet and the rest is just hype.

Answer 6

I would suggest feeding them in seperate rooms at feeding time. I'm not sure but I don't think it will really hurt to keep the kitten food a bit longer either.

Answer 7

Feed them in separate rooms. Or, big cats in the front yard and little kittens in the back yard.

Answer 8

feeding kitten food isn't going to make your can't any bigger than she should.
keep them all on kitten food it won't hurt teh older ones but the adult food won't have teh right nutrition for the little one.

Answer 9

There are a few good quality cat foods that are good for all stages of life....they are not sold in supermarkets though.