Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a three year old female, Jersey, and a 12 week old female, Pandora. Jersey eats Purina Indoor Fomula and loves it. I have tried several different brands and flavors of kitten food for Pandora but all she wants to eat is Jersey's cat food. Since Pandora eats most of the adult cat food, Jersey goes and eats the kitten food! I can't really separate them while they eat beacause they are both the kind of cats that take two bites every 15 minutes, so I need to leave the food out for them all day. I was just wondering: is it unhealthy for a kitten to eat adult cat food or for an adult cat to eat kitten food?

Well, the difference really is in the amount of fat & protein in the foods. Kitten food has more of both. If the adult cat eats it she may gain weight, but she may just begin to eat a bit less. Conversly, the kitten, may grow ever so slightly slower & she may eat more of the adult food than she would of the kitten food. IMO they usually balance the situation out pretty nicely by themselves & I'd say 'don't worry about it'. I will say though that switching them both over to a premium food such as Iams or Nutro would be great for them. They really are worth the extra $ & save you in litterbox waste & odor. Also they will eat far less of it than they will grocery brands. Still, whatever works best for you will be fine as long as you listen to your critters!-- Jennifer
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And neither the angels in heaven above nor the demons down under the sea could ever disever my soul from the soul of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE

"I saw Othello's visage in his mind And to my honours and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate."

Dance in the burning flame. Pleasure exhumes the pain. The night turns into flame. Dance, Helena, dance!

In most cases [Harlan] Ellison goes around the pit, jumps over it...or jumps right into it, on purpose, avoiding major injury, either by his own talent, the grace of god, or a combination of the two.

I felt a warm rasping at my throat, then came the aweful truth, which chilled me to the heart and sent the blood surging through my brain. Some great animal was lying on me, and now licking my throat.

Where did this cat come from??

Jennifer gave you some excellent advice - kittens have thrived long before their was kitten food. If you are concerned you might slip the kitten a feline vitamin, but check with the vet about this first. The older cat may gain weight on the kitten food, so you'd probably be better off just taking it away totally and feeding both cats a high-quality cat food.

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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

I have tried feeding them Iams and they will have nothing to do with it. I would never feed them the really cheap stuff like Alley Cat, but I thought Purina was pretty high quality. Am I wrong?

It depends on whether you are talking Purina Cat Chow (or other grociery brands), Purina One which is a slightly higher quality grociery brand, or Purina Pro Plan which is a premium food. Except for Iams, which can sometimes be found in grociery stores, you won't find premium foods at a grociery store. You will want to look at a well stocked pet store or online at a place like PetCo. Actually, Iams isn't bad, but it's not the best that's out there. Basically, the difference is in whether the meat in the food is real meat or byproduct. Also, in grociery brands there is alot of corn which is largly undigestable by cats and is the cheif cause of litterbox odor & large amounts of waste. Because so much of the cheaper foods go to waste (because of the corn), they eat ALOT more of it, to get what they do need. Just so you don't have sticker shock, if you do look into premium foods, they cost around $30 per 20lb bag. Most premium brands make a variety of different flavors & lifestages as well as canned foods. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, here, I understand if you are skeptical of the difference -- I was a stauch grociery food feeder for quite awhile, but it really does make a difference, to the cats and to the comfort of your home. I love Nutro Natural Choice catfoods and use them whenever I can. Also, if you can afford it, because it can get very pricey, I would recommend you feed them canned food as much as possible, as that contains the most meat and moisture. Some people disagree, feeling that canned food leads to weight gain, but I really disagree. If you do feel alot of canned make sure you brush their teeth often though. Anyway, this is just my opinion, but these are my recommendations.-- Jennifer
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And neither the angels in heaven above nor the demons down under the sea could ever disever my soul from the soul of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE

"I saw Othello's visage in his mind And to my honours and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate."

Dance in the burning flame. Pleasure exhumes the pain. The night turns into flame. Dance, Helena, dance!

In most cases [Harlan] Ellison goes around the pit, jumps over it...or jumps right into it, on purpose, avoiding major injury, either by his own talent, the grace of god, or a combination of the two.

I felt a warm rasping at my throat, then came the aweful truth, which chilled me to the heart and sent the blood surging through my brain. Some great animal was lying on me, and now licking my throat.

Where did this cat come from??