Need advice on feeding kittens and older cat...

We have a 7 year old cat that eats regular adult food, and we have two kittens (6 months old) that eat kitten food, now here's the problem...

Right now we have them eat seperately, the only problem is that the kittens wake me up at least twice a night begging to eat. The older cat used to be a grazer until we got these new kittens. It's getting harder and harder to wake up at 12:00 and 3:00am to feed them when I have to get up at 4:45 to get ready for work. We have tried locking them out of the room, but then they all just sit and scratch at the door and meow.

They recently got spayed/neutered and they were allowed to graze at the vets office when they stayed there. So now, it's even worse (waking me up at night.)

When do you think we can switch them all to adult food? Or do you think it would be OK to just leave their respective foods out at night, and let them graze, and then feed them seperate before we go to work and when we get home? I need to figure something out...it's making me and my husband crazy.

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

Thanks,
Stacy

Originally Posted by cands04

We have a 7 year old cat that eats regular adult food, and we have two kittens (6 months old) that eat kitten food, now here's the problem...

Right now we have them eat seperately, the only problem is that the kittens wake me up at least twice a night begging to eat. The older cat used to be a grazer until we got these new kittens. It's getting harder and harder to wake up at 12:00 and 3:00am to feed them when I have to get up at 4:45 to get ready for work. We have tried locking them out of the room, but then they all just sit and scratch at the door and meow.

They recently got spayed/neutered and they were allowed to graze at the vets office when they stayed there. So now, it's even worse (waking me up at night.)

When do you think we can switch them all to adult food? Or do you think it would be OK to just leave their respective foods out at night, and let them graze, and then feed them seperate before we go to work and when we get home? I need to figure something out...it's making me and my husband crazy.

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

Thanks,
Stacy

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I had the same problem with Kionu (7 months) and Miko (9 years). Since we've gotten Kionu, I feed the boys Innova (Regular Formula). It's formulated for all life stages so both the kittens and the older cat can eat it.

Six month old kittens will do fine on adult cat food. A food like Innova or Felidae is even labeled for cats and kittens, but any good quality food is fine. I prefer to feed canned food. A six month old kitten will do fine on two feeds a day. You have responded to their pleas for food in the night, so you will have to untrain them. If you have a bathroom away from your bedroom, confine them there at night until they have broken the habit. Have a play time about an hour before bed that vigorously exercises them and feed them their nightly feeding them shut them in the bathroom with a snuggly bed. Turn a deaf ear to their pleas and in three or four nights they will have reformed.
Becky

I was going to suggest the same thing , Innova , california natural, felidae, to name a few are premium foods and are for both cats and kittens. so you can leave some out for all your cats, . Hopefully this will stop them from bothering you.

I have the same problem...Bella (7 years old) can only have one type of food due to Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Bert and Ernie are my 6 month old kittens...I used to leave Bella's food out all day for all 3 of them to eat. Then, at night, I would put Bert and Ernie in a separate room and leave kitten food out all night for them. This worked great! Now, I am switching Bella over to a home cooked diet because of her illness. I am going to leave Bert and Ernie on kitten food, though. So, now I am feeding Bella, Bert, and Ernie 2x daily (sometimes Bert and Ernie more often since they're growing kittens). I put them in separate rooms for about 30-45min (depending on how much time I have), and then after this time I remove their food and they're done until the next feeding. I am finding that this works much better. It gives their digestive tracts a break in between meals, instead of nibbling all the time. It does take time for them to get used to it though. At first, they wouldn't eat very much because they expected food to be around all day. After a couple of days they learned and they now eat their portion in the 30-45 min.