Advice wanted - kittens to cat food?

Hello all. Just a quick question. I have had some differing advice (as always!) and wanted to get your take on it. We have three semi-feral kittens who have been living with us for just over two months. They are about 7 months old and have all been altered (the boys were just done last week, the girl was done about a month ago). I was just wondering when I should move them from kitten food to adult food? I know a lot of places say at 12 months, but I have also heard that once you get them fixed, you can start a gradual shift.

A bit of feeding background. They free feed on dry food and get one wet meal a day (at dinner time - they LOVE the wet food). The dry food has been adult food for a few weeks - this is very arbitrary because my pet store only stocks adult in the brand I wanted to use. My vet said it would be fine. I am just curious about moving from wet kitten food to wet adult. They are very active, indoor only cats. I know kitten food has more calories/protein for kitten development, and they are doing well developmentally (the boys were weighed last week at the vets - about 8lbs each - one slightly smaller, one slightly larger and the girl kitten is about the same). Should we stick with kitten food or could we do a transition to adult food? I don't want them to miss out on necessary calories/protein, so just wanted to check and see when you guys thought it was good to change over (I have spoken to my vet about this as well - I just wanted to get your perspective!).

You'll find you may get varied advice here as well.

I personally think it depends on the cat(s). If they are doing well weight-wise and are being free-fed, I would think they would be fine on the adult food now. If your vet says it should be alright, then I would go with that since he's seen the cats and knows what physical shape they are in.

I switched PJ & Punky to adult food when they were around 8 months old, I think. They were getting pudgy & I did not want to start with weight issues at such a young age, so I switched.

IMO sounds like you could start feeding the adult canned foods. They are at a healthy weight and its easier to add a little extra food once in awhile then to try and take pounds off if they gain too much.

My cats are on total adult foods by 5-6 months at the latest. Usually around 5 months they are eating adult foods. I've never had to worry about getting a cat to lose weight. Charlie is now almost 2 yrs old and a solid musculer cat weighing about 11 lbs. He was put on adult food at 5 months old.

My husband has wanted to move them to adult food for a while now - and I am starting to think it is for the best. We took them in off the streets, so kitten food was important to make sure they put on appropriate weight. But now, they are all de-flea'd, wormed and fixed and in good general health, so I think it is probably about time to switch them over. I have never had cats before (always dogs) and am a worrier by nature. My husband has always had cats and is so laid back he is practically lying down.

The weight thing is a big worry - they are all looking good, but I don't want them to get chubby....

Originally Posted by Yosemite

You'll find you may get varied advice here as well.

I personally think it depends on the cat(s). If they are doing well weight-wise and are being free-fed, I would think they would be fine on the adult food now. If your vet says it should be alright, then I would go with that since he's seen the cats and knows what physical shape they are in.

Click to expand...

that is my thought...

truthfully wet food kitten and adult differ by usually 4% dry matter protein and 4% dry matter fat ... this yeilds about 10% total calories

Thanks Sharky! I was hoping you would weigh in. I have read your advice on other threads, so much appreciated! And the info on the differences is good to know. I think after we finish this lot of wet kitten food, we will transition them to adult.

Well a funny conundrum is that the ultra premium brands (Evo, Orijen, NV, etc) dont have kitten formulas.

When I fed Nutro I did feed my cat the Kitten formula, but for reasons that she had a high metabolism (7lb bengal) and it seemed to be a better value.

Another funny thing is Nature's Variety Instinct line wet food is the same for cats and dogs.
With multiple cats you can reap the value of the 15 oz cans (Also Eagle sells big cans for a good price).

My kitten (Chloe) is almost 8 months old and still eats kitten food. She has always been small for her age and right now only weighs about 6 lbs. I suspect this might have something to do with her being a stray kitten and her mom not eating well enough while pregnant. Chloe is very active so I'm not worried about extra calories. I will probably keep her on it until she's 1. Her dry food is a kitten formula, but for wet food I feed her both kitten formulas and all-life-stages formulas.

I know some people like to switch to adult food earlier, and it just depends on the individual cat.