How old before going off kitten food,,

tom w

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Hi, I just got a 4 month old kitty cat named Cozmo today. He has been eating iams dry kitten food, and the place I got him from gave me some of the food he has been eating. I fed Missy her soft food tonight and the next thing I know Cozmo was eating Missy's wet food. He didn't eat allot of it but he had a good meal before I took it away from him. Will this be a problem if he eats something different than he is used to? I would feel just awful if he got sick his first night here.
 

rosiemac

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It's always best to break them in with the new food by mixing some in with the food they have now. Sophie was about 10 months old when she found Rosies adult food more interesting.

Can you not get the kitten some wet kitten food?.
 

gingersmom

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Ginger started getting adult food at 9 months old, but had to switch back to kitten when Ferris came into the house at the beginning of September. He is now 7 1/2 months old approximately, and I have started mixing adult food in with the kitten food. I will gradually add more adult and stop adding in kitten within the next couple of months, so by the time he is a year old he will be completely on adult.
 

cutie1515

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my baby was about 5-6 months old when we got her girly parts nipped...and the vet said to slowly mix in the adult food with the kitten food, b/c after they have the surgery they will start getting a little tubby.

I was actually already mixing the food though like 60% kitten and the rest adult, b/c the kitten food was making my adult cat FAT FAT FAT.
 

sharky

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General rule( IT IS VERY GENERAL) kitten food till a yr unless they are gaining too much wt .... some slow growing breeds or mixes may need it till age 2
 

epona

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My 7 month old kitten is on a rather broad mix of foods at the moment...

there's the science plan 'Neutered Cat' dry that was on offer at the vet (no way I'm turning down a huge bag of ANY halfway decent dry for £5 when it's usually £12 for that size I'm not made of money lol), which is mixed with James Wellbeloved kitten dry, and science plan kitten dry. Don't ask, but I was switching him to James Wellbeloved kitten from science plan when the special deal came up so I've ended up mixing all 3 for the time being. When I need to buy more I will be getting James Wellbeloved adult dry, because the huge amount I have in will easily last a while.

And as far as wet food goes, he is also on a mixture of kitten and adult pouches. He usually gets Hi-Life or Nature's menu, kitten pouch in the morning and adult pouch at night. I think he's going off the nature's menu which is a shame cos it's very good quality food and a bit cheaper than Hi-Life when you buy in bulk. I find it so much easier to get high quality adult wet food, and I figured it's better to feed a high quality adult (all-stage) food than a poor quality carb-based kitten food.
 

arlyn

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I think it really depends on the invidual kitten.
I've always started switching them off of kitten food when they start reaching more adult cat activity levels.
6-9 months usually, though Vash and Ivory were 11 months old before they started slowing down from the kitten crazies.
 

naturestee

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You could switch to an "All Life Stages" cat food like Felidae, Innova, or California Natural. My kittens are 7 and 9 months and are switching from Chicken Soup Kitten to California Natural, about half and half right now.

Changing the food after speutering doesn't work in all cases because of how young it can be done. Eve was only 2 months when she was spayed and definately needed kitten food. If you have an older kitten that's gaining weight, it's probably time to go to measured meals instead of free-feeding them.
 
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tom w

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He is just fine after eating Missy's food the other night. He went back to his own food by himself, he leaves Missy alone now while she eats.
 

epona

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Originally Posted by Tom W

He is just fine after eating Missy's food the other night. He went back to his own food by himself, he leaves Missy alone now while she eats.
Sometimes cats just have to try food that isn't 'theirs' - the more you try to keep them from it, the more appealing it becomes to them. Sounds as if his curiosity has been satisfied
 

persi & alley

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Originally Posted by Tom W

Hi, I just got a 4 month old kitty cat named Cozmo today. He has been eating iams dry kitten food, and the place I got him from gave me some of the food he has been eating. I fed Missy her soft food tonight and the next thing I know Cozmo was eating Missy's wet food. He didn't eat allot of it but he had a good meal before I took it away from him. Will this be a problem if he eats something different than he is used to? I would feel just awful if he got sick his first night here.
Here is what I did and it worked out fine for me. I brought my new kitten home along with a sack of what he had been used to eating. I did not agree with what he had been eating so I bought a new bag of food that I wanted him to grow up on. I started out with only 10% of the new food mixed in with 90% of what he was used to. The next day it became 20% and so forth until he was eating 100% of the food I wanted him to be on. I don't think that in these small steps he ever noticed! He certainly never got sick using this procedure, it is as nothing had changed at all.
 
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