switching to adult food at 7 months?

when i took miyoko, now six months old, to the vet for checkup and rabies vaccine, she suggested to me that i switch him over to adult food in about a month or two because she keeps seeing more and more cats become overweight by ten months due to the high calorie kitten food. so im thinking i will follow her advice but maybe go half and half since kya will only be 5 months at that time.

any opinions on this?

That should be fine. Kittens do not need to be on kitten food for that long anyways. As long as you are feeding a good high quality cat food, not some crappy grocery store brand. It does tend to make them overweight a bit sometimes and if your vet is seeing that happening in your kitties or if they are not extremely active then you may want to consider doing that.

I agree. Mosi is 8 months and getting a little tubby! As soon as I've used up the current supply of kitten food he's going on to adult. I think 7 months is fine.

I agree woth Jen, try to saty away from grocery brand foods. Seeing that all cats are different in their own way (munchy eats her food, but gains little weight - only 9.6 lbs which i guess is normal weight- and Tai eats the same but is rolly polly at a year old on wednesday!). It also depends on when you feed them or if they are free fed. I like to give my cats (or bother my bf to do it since the cats don't live with me) One cup a day between the two of them. Because munchy turned 1 year old 3 months b4 tai did, we just put them on regular cat food, while still mixing it with some kitten food to transfer them over safely.

However, kittens should be on kitten food for up to 6 months to make sure they get all of their nutrients needed for their early development!

It should be okay but it is not ideal... Ideally you keep them on till one year or when growth has stopped... In my Zoeys case she is 2.5 yrs and the growth is finally slowing ..

Originally Posted by sharky

It should be okay but it is not ideal... Ideally you keep them on till one year or when growth has stopped... In my Zoeys case she is 2.5 yrs and the growth is finally slowing ..

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since theres really no different of ingredients in most brands, wouldnt the cat just eat more of the adult food if it needed extra calories?

Originally Posted by jaycee

since theres really no different of ingredients in most brands, wouldnt the cat just eat more of the adult food if it needed extra calories?

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Yes in Zoeys case she eats about 3/4 cup of kitten and when I had her on adult she ate double that ... For me it was cheaper and easier to get back to kitten( which many high end kittens are all stage) ... For her she got over a food allergy since kitten is usually a simplier recipe... I have had a long discussion with my vet about it ... Her answer leave her with kitten but make sure she gets off by the time she is a senior
... Zoeys adult food has about 5-7% less calories than the kitten so it doesnt make sence she would eat double but she did :0

I guess it would depend on the cat - a really big-boned cat like a Maine Coon might need kitten food for a year. My plain ole kitty-cats are small-boned and one was becoming obese on her kitten food. I switched them all to adult food. They are still growing well and yet, fat girl was still fat.

My four cats range in age from two years to 9 months. They are all very healthy and all but one are at their best weight. We are still working on Lucy.

well, here is my plan, im going to keep feeding kitten food until miyoko is 9 months (kya will be then be 6 months) and then ill switch to half and half until miyoko is a year old (kya would be 9 months) when ill switch them both to just adult food.

My rex kittens were eating normal adult foods by 6 months old - if they were kept on kitten food for the "recommended" year, they would be VERY fat rexes!

Go by the body size of the cat - a small cat doesn't need kitten food for a year. A cat like a maine coon might go longer.