Breeder had kittens on Adult food only? Should I change that?

I recently picked up my two precious ragdoll kittens, and they were being fed on Adult food. I was wondering if that's an okay thing or if I should change that?

TheyCallMeFive said:

I recently picked up my two precious ragdoll kittens, and they were being fed on Adult food. I was wondering if that's an okay thing or if I should change that?

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You should change that cause kitten food has stuff that kittens need in it.

How old are the kittens?

What food were they being fed?

TheyCallMeFive said:

I recently picked up my two precious ragdoll kittens, and they were being fed on Adult food. I was wondering if that's an okay thing or if I should change that?

Click to expand...

My Aby was eating adult food (a commerical raw pet food) when I got him from the breeder. He grew up just fine on the diet So you don't necessarily need to feed a kitten specific food unless you really want to. You can supplement the adult food with a kitten vitamin supplement like Kitten Nutri-Cal. Kittens eat a lot so you'd need to feed them small frequent meals daily, either a kitten food or an adult food.

A rapidly growing kitten needs a more nutrient dense food than an adult.  A kitten appropriate food will be higher in protein, arginine, lysine, tryptophan, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin A, and vitamin D.

There may be some confusion about which foods are truly "for adults" and which are truly "for kittens". A lot of foods are formulated for all life stages meaning they are appropriate for either adults or kittens. Just because the label doesn't have "Kitten" on it doesn't mean it isn't meant for kittens.

There may be no outwardly obvious affect to feeding a food meant for adults to a rapidly growing kitten but I still wouldn't do it. I would want a kitten to get as good a start on life as possible and in part that means making sure she gets the nutrients she needs during her early growing stage.

Congratulations on your new kitties theycallmefive

I think you should speak to your breeder first before changing their food. There could be a reason they were being fed adult food. I once had a litter that I could only feed adult food as kitten food kept giving them diarrhoea. So, it's best to find out from your breeder first just in case

Thanks for the advice! I talked to the breeder and she said that there was no specific reason for giving them adult food, she just did. I've mixed in some kitten food and they seem to love it! The little monsters are 12 weeks old and look like they're gonna be huge? Their paws are pretty big [emoji]128513[/emoji]

I frequently use All Life Stages food for non-underweight kittens.  It's easier in a mixed household than trying to keep the adults from chowing down on the kitten food and getting fat, and I find that once my kittens are spayed/neutered, they don't generally need the high calories that come with a kitten diet.  Yes, the kittens do eat more of the food than maybe they would of kitten food, but in my opinion a kitten old enough to leave mom is old enough to switch away from a kitten-specific diet, unless it's underweight.  Then I do feed kitten food.