having seconds thoughts on switching Lily to adult food, suggestions/help?

I know I've posted a lot about my journey of switching Lily to an adult hard food, sorry if its getting repetitive! Lily is just my first kitten I've raised, I've had cats my whole life, just never had one as young as Lily. ( I got her when she was about 5 weeks old) Anyway. So I went with simply Nourish Grain free hard food. She & Callie are eating it (yaye!!) I've read on a site that some people suggest staying on kitten food for even 18 months? I don't know if Lily is done growing, shes about 1 now, I think by counting back from September 18, 2012 when I got her, her birthday is around August 3. And I'm reading how important kitten food is if they are still growing. But as long as she eats enough of it, its as good, if not better than the IAMS kitten she was eating? And I saw how kitten food contains DHA which is important for growth, which the adult food does not have. But, she gets My Little Lion Treats, Blue Buffalo Hair & Skin Treats, and GNC vitamins, all have DHA in it, so if they get those treats, that should compensate for the lack of DHA in adult food. I just have so many questions and second guessing myself. I switched Lily because I was afraid she would get fat if I kept her on the kitten food any longer. I saw some kitties at Petsmart the other day, who were HUGE and I thought maybe Lily is supposed to grow that big, because shes big now, but shes awkwardly shaped, which makes her look fat, maybe shes in another growth spurt. I just want whats best for her, and to have a great start into adult hood. Sorry if I'm rambling.  

The only way to figure out if she has stopped growing is to measure and weigh her every week. If you didn't do it when she was younger, you will not have as large a database, but should still be able to see any change.

I know Sugar and Spice didn't stop growing until they were about 15 months old.

If she is eating the adult food, I wouldn't change her back. That is asking for stomach upset and diarrhea, as the kitten food is richer.

I would not switch back.  12 months is plenty long enough to have a cat on kitten food.  It is normal for them to still be growing some at that time, but it is no longer necessary for them to have the extra calories and richness of the kitten food.  Their growth has dramatically slowed and leaving them on kitten food (especially dry food) is often just asking for a weight problem, which is hard to correct. She will be able to finish her (slight) further growth on the adult food just fine

The DHA question is a little more involved than whether they are getting "enough" since we don't know what the Omega 3 requirements are for cats. A lot of raw feeders look at the Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio instead. If you are truly concerned about providing Omega 3s in their diet, I would look at a high quality human grade salmon or krill oil.

I am a little concerned about the GNC vitamins you are providing on top of commercial cat foods which already add the recommended amounts of vitamins. It is possible to overdo vitamins and cause toxicity.

Finally, you say that you want what's best for Lily to provide a great start into adulthood. I would say that an all wet diet (or as much wet as possible) is the best for all cats who are obligate carnivores who have no nutritional need for any of the carbs or starches in all dry foods. In addition, an all dry diet can cause chronic mild dehydration which is tough on the body's systems, particularly the kidneys. www.catinfo.org has more info written by a vet on why a dry diet can be so damaging to a cat's health.

vball91 said:

The DHA question is a little more involved than whether they are getting "enough" since we don't know what the Omega 3 requirements are for cats. A lot of raw feeders look at the Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio instead. If you are truly concerned about providing Omega 3s in their diet, I would look at a high quality human grade salmon or krill oil.

I am a little concerned about the GNC vitamins you are providing on top of commercial cat foods which already add the recommended amounts of vitamins. It is possible to overdo vitamins and cause toxicity.

Finally, you say that you want what's best for Lily to provide a great start into adulthood. I would say that an all wet diet (or as much wet as possible) is the best for all cats who are obligate carnivores who have no nutritional need for any of the carbs or starches in all dry foods. In addition, an all dry diet can cause chronic mild dehydration which is tough on the body's systems, particularly the kidneys. www.catinfo.org has more info written by a vet on why a dry diet can be so damaging to a cat's health.

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I concur with vball an all dry diet is the worst thing you can feed your cats. You are right to worry about her weight and the number one thing you can do is stop free feeding kibble (http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity). The grain free kibble is actually super high in calories and really should be limited. I do sometimes sprinkle some grain free kibble on top of the wet to get them interested in the wet and this works really well. 

I too have a kitten and I feed her mostly adult wet food and commercial raw. I also add a fish oil supplement to her food and some of the wet foods I feed already have it added. I also agree you have to be careful with adding too many vitamins and you can just buy a human fish oil supplement. I use the carlson salmon oil (http://www.carlsonlabs.com/p-157-salmon-oil.aspx) and even my very picky eater will eat food with that in it- I have also heard good things about krill oil. 

Just took a look at your other thread and I see you have picky cats. I myself have one of the pickiest cats ever who used to have to be hand fed wet and is now eating almost 100 percent wet. Persistence is key to success with getting them to switch. I also think adding kibble to his wet helped him start to eat it and also stop leaving kibble out and start making them eat meals. Mine also likes shredded foods and I have great success with nature's variety pride and I always put freeze dried chicken as a topper to get them to eat it. 

A lot of people will disagree with this but I also will leave out the wet for them because I  find they will come back and eat it. The general advice is to only leave it out for 30 min but on catinfo.org Dr. Pierson states she has left wet food out for up to 12 hours (though I never leave it out that long). I usually find they eat it all after 2 hours it just takes them a while because they like to graze. I also think they don't like me watching them eat and will come back to the food after I leave.  Again this is not recommended by many but it has really helped me and I do not have to waste as much wet food this way. I have also not noticed any adverse effects. 

My ladies also like to graze the wet food. It is usually gone in 2-3 hours. I keep the house around 76 degrees, and have noticed no adverse effects from leaving it out.

catspaw66 said:

My ladies also like to graze the wet food. It is usually gone in 2-3 hours. I keep the house around 76 degrees, and have noticed no adverse effects from leaving it out.

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I also want to confirm this.  With my cats it can vary a lot (sometimes they munch it all up like there's no tomorrow, especially in the morning) but I have often left it out with no ill effects.  In the evening I find they usually have eaten it all within 2 hours; absolutely no ill effects have occurred over a several year period from leaving it out that long. I also will leave it in the morning if they don't finish it and just go to work and clean up after I get home.  While I suspect they finish it within 2 hours then too, I really have no way of knowing. Again, they've always been fine.

The temp I keep my house at varies but can be up to 80 degrees in winter. I don't necessarily support leaving wet food out uneaten for 12 hours, but in my opinion based on my experience, 30 minutes is a drastic underestimate of how long it is safe.

Now, this is for canned wet food. For raw food, the 30 minute limit would make a lot of sense. But, most cats who eat raw don't leave much, from what I am reading in the Raw forum.

Yeah totally agree on the raw food I throw away or put back in the fridge any that is uneaten but I usually only feed small amounts of raw so the kitten eats it right away. For the wet I too leave some out before I go to work and sometimes right before bed and it is always gone when I come back. From watching their eating habits they seem to take about two hours to eat it. When I first started feeding wet I thought I could only leave it out 30 min and I wasted a lot of food and thought my cats would never eat enough wet to sustain themselves. Since I started leaving out they are actually consuming large amounts of wet food because they now have control on when they eat which they like.

I have a basement apartment so it is quite cold down here I would say it is like 20 Celsius so like 70 F.