How long do you keep kittens on kitten food

Wendy is 9 months old when do i stop feeding her kitten food.

I'd say she's probably well and truly ready for adult food unless she is very thin or ill. Watch her bowel movements, sometimes the change can cause a little diahorrea.

She's a beautiful girl!

I keep them on until they are on year old. When they are around 10 monthes i start mixing alittle bit of adult food in with there kitten food.

Let me put this in Health & Nutrition for you.

My vet said I can switch them over anytime between 6-8 mos. of age. Since I feed dry, the switch makes things easier so I don't have to worry about them getting into eachother's food anymore.

Some may need to wait until they are a year old..depending on their health, but alot of times vets will recommend putting them on adult food starting at 6 months....Rocky and Fluff's vet told me I could start giving both of them adult food,,Rock will be a year old in June sometime, and Fluffy is only 6 months old...just mix it to start with their kitten food, and gradually add less and then after about a week, take the kitten food away completely, unless health problems arise..the runs or vommitng....Good luck though!

Opinions vary. My vet told me to feed JC kitten food until he was a year old, because he was still growing rapidly. He didn't reach his full size until he was two - since "Dad" was unknown, we're assuming he was a large breed.

jcat... I just had to tell you that your precious kitty looks IDENTICAL to my kitty Oreo. I as well do not know who his father is, but he's going to be one big cat. He is only 3 months old, but he is huge! I don't have any pics to show you guys yet though.

I have two kittens - a male and a female (littermates) and they're 7 months.  The male is pretty big, but the female is still really petite.  Healthy - she eats, drinks, plays, etc.  just really tiny.  He is nearly 10 lbs and she is just under 6 lbs.  Do I switch them both to adult formula food or keep her on kitten? If I keep her on kitten formula - how do I keep him out of it? 

I usually would switch them sometime between 7 -9 months.   But I now feed  foods that are for both cats and kittens -  "all life stages".  and i just vary the amount & frequency depending on their needs.  After all ,  in the wild isn't some special kind of prey just for kittens.  Kittens,  young adults, and older adults would all eat a similar diet that is high in animal protein,  moderate to high in fat,  and very very low in carbohydrate / plant-based food.

 In a situation like yours ,  I would consider feeding them separately to make sure she gets her share.     You would not have to leave food out all the time.  7 month old kittens can do fine on 2 or 3 meals a day.  

Females are often smaller than their brothers.  It wouldn't be surprising that as they grow,  there's  a widening difference between their sizes.     So she may just be smaller than he is,  but equally healthy.   

 Really,   6 pounds is  not  abnormal for a 7 month old female kitten.   The average adult female domestic cat ranges from about 7 to 11 pounds at a healthy, slender body condition.   

It's more that the boy is bigger than average than that the girl is super tiny.  It may be he is just going to be a big boy,   but I would try to make sure he is not getting too chubby as he gets older.   

There is a vet's site with a lot of helpful info on feline nutrition ,  and even a chart with nutrient info for many kinds of wet cat food   http://www.catinfo.org

 I hope they're already neutered / spayed  ! 

 & Welcome to TCS!

Thank you! Very helpful information.  I was wondering if maybe he's a bit above average... they are free fed right now, so maybe that's something I should think about changing.  

Yes - we just had them spayed/neutered a couple of weeks ago! 

I feed only wet food, but my three kittens are 6 months old now and I just started feeding them the purina pro-plan canned.  They actually didn't like pro-plans canned kitten food - to mushy I think.  Before that it was Royal Canin Babycat and then Kitten Instinctive.  I think the kitten formulas generally have more protein and are easier to digest, but by the time they are six months the  latter probably doesn't matter so much.

Anyway, I've been using a few charts to decide how much/what to feed them.  Here's one on calories:

http://animalmedicalcenterofchicago.com/pdf/CalorieRequirementsForCats.pdf

Here's the one on composition/nutrition by brand:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Lisa Pierson has an enormous amount of info. on what to feed your cat.  (That's her chart above) and I see her site is mentioned in some of other posts.  Basically, in her opinion, it comes down to feeding canned foods only, with under 10% carbs and not too much fat (first three columns are % of protein/fat/carbs.)  

 According to the chart, growing kittens should eat about twice the amount of calories per pound as an adult cat.  For mine that works out to 10-12 oz (or about 4 3 oz. cans per day.)

I have never been house poor, but now I know what it's like to be cat food poor.  Ouch!