2 cats...1 Senior & 1 Kid (Food)

I was just looking at the new issue of Cat Fancy and remembered that my older cat is 8 1/2. I'm going to start him on Senior cat food soon and was wondering how to feed him as I have a 2 1/2 year old cat also. Will the senior food hurt the young cat? Do I really need senior food? (He is not very active unless he's playing with the other cat.) and... Should I just start feeding him at different times?
Thank you in advance!!

Keith

Unless your cat is overweight or showing signs of weight gain, it's fine to keep them on maintnance food for adult cats. The senior cat foods are somewhat comparable to the weight reduction.
The only way to feed a multicat household different foods is to seperate them and have selected feeding times.

Whisky has always been kind of a big cat but now that he is older (he weighs in at about 20 lbs.) I need to start looking after him. You mention maintainance food...would I find that at the grocery store or should I get the better stuff at Petsmart?? Thank you!!!

Keith

Well, feline maintnance food is considered to be any cat food meant for adult cats verses kittens, weight loss, hairball etc. General rule of thumb is that the better quality food they eat and the more required nutrients they get, they will eat less to satisfy themselves. If you have been feeding say purina or whiskas the past 8 years, I wouldn't switch to an all natural because they are used to some of the things that aren't in the natural foods. It tends to reek havoc on thier digestive systems. If he has maintianed his weight well, you might want to try something a little higher in quality and smaller peices that are digested easier. You can also mix the adult food and the senior food so they can still eat together if you decide to go with the senior food.

NUTRO - nutro anything - maintenance, senior, etc... They have great products and good for them.

Whiskey's dad - three of my four are chunky, and have been since kittenhood. One of mine is also 20 lbs. I put them on Iams Adult Maintenance before they were a year old hoping they would unchunk but they didn't. When they were a year I put them on Iams Weight Control and measured carefully. This concerned me becuase I was afraid their mom, who is lean, would lose too much. I didn't have to worry, a year and a half later, NONE of them have lost weight. They get exercise and even sleep less than most cats, the chunkiest don't even like table scraps and the skinny and no-quite-so chunky one get limited table scraps. But the three of them are still fat!