Cat Food -vs- Kitten Food

I know that this has been posted about before, so I apologize for the repeat, but I wasn't able to easily find the archived posts on it.

Ferris has not only chosen Ginger's litter box as his own (she has given up her box and decided to exclusively use the new one that I bought for Ferris - it has a hood, and she seems to like the extra privacy) but he is now eating dry food out of her dish ONLY.

He has his dish with just kitten dry food in it, and he is bypassing that in favor of hers, which has a mix of mostly adult with some kitten still mixed in. (I've been slowly adding more and more adult food to Ginger's mix to get her completely onto adult food only.)

Here is the question: Will it hurt Ginger to eat just kitten dry for the next several months so that I can be absolutely sure that Ferris is getting the nutrition he needs? Especially since he was born wild - I want to be sure he gets what he needs as he continues to develop and grow.

Ginger is a thin cat, so I'm thinking it should be ok to have her eat kitten dry with adult wet, because the only thing I've ever seen that is bad about cats eating kitten food is that it can make them overweight. Is that correct? So then, if that is true, it should be okay to allow her to eat the kitten food since Ferris only seems to want to eat out of her dish anyway.

Am I right, or am I way off? I free feed her dry, and I don't want that to change.

Any thoughts??? Thanks!!!

how old is Ginger? I would think that it would be fine for her to continue eating the kitten food for a bit, I think the kitten food has more fat and protein?? so you're right that it might make a gluttonous cat overweight, but if Ginger is already thin, I wouldn't worry.

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

how old is Ginger? I would think that it would be fine for her to continue eating the kitten food for a bit, I think the kitten food has more fat and protein?? so you're right that it might make a gluttonous cat overweight, but if Ginger is already thin, I wouldn't worry.

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Ginger is just 15 months old, and I strongly believe that she has Maine Coon genes, which would technically mean she's still a kitten and could still be growing, although much, much more slowly.

She has been static at 8.5 pounds for at least the last 3 months, and she is quite thin, as far as I'm concerned, although she is healthy.

She eats in small quantities - like that post I read yesterday about cats eating in mouse-sized portions. So I'm really not worried about her overeating, but I AM worried about letting Ferris eat adult food rather than kitten food.

Originally Posted by GingersMom

Ginger is just 15 months old, and I strongly believe that she has Maine Coon genes, which would technically mean she's still a kitten and could still be growing, although much, much more slowly.

She has been static at 8.5 pounds for at least the last 3 months, and she is quite thin, as far as I'm concerned, although she is healthy.

She eats in small quantities - like that post I read yesterday about cats eating in mouse-sized portions.

So I'm really not worried about her overeating, but I AM worried about letting Ferris eat adult food rather than kitten food.

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Hmmm the mice around these parts must be pretty darn big based on how much my kitties will eat at one sitting

I would go with the option the alleviates your worry, so that would be feeding everyone kitten food

I feed kitten food to everyone, because of my 10, 8 are kittens, under a year, and Jinx is about 2, but she eats like a bird and Sapphire is coming close to 4 I believe, but it would be impossible to feed her separately, so she gets her Meow Mix pouch, absolutely the only wet she will eat, in the evenings and free feeds on the dry

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

Hmmm the mice around these parts must be pretty darn big based on how much my kitties will eat at one sitting

I would go with the option the alleviates your worry, so that would be feeding everyone kitten food

I feed kitten food to everyone, because of my 10, 8 are kittens, under a year, and Jinx is about 2, but she eats like a bird

and Sapphire is coming close to 4 I believe, but it would be impossible to feed her separately, so she gets her Meow Mix pouch, absolutely the only wet she will eat, in the evenings and free feeds on the dry

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Thanks, Katiemae, I appreciate the validation! I think that's what I'll do.

I don't have to worry about Ginger eating Ferris' wet food, as it turns out he's not picky like she is - I'm sure he's just very happy to get food, period! This morning I gave him Chicken & Liver pate style, left over from when I was trying out 36 different flavors & brands of wet on my picky girl, and he scarfed it up! Woo-hoo!

Ferris DOES try to eat Ginger's wet food, but I'm really not worried about that at all, as he eats plenty of his own. His little belly is nice and round, LOL...I'm going to have to watch him to make sure HE'S not a glutton. So far so good...

Originally Posted by GingersMom

Thanks, Katiemae, I appreciate the validation!

I think that's what I'll do.

I don't have to worry about Ginger eating Ferris' wet food, as it turns out he's not picky like she is - I'm sure he's just very happy to get food, period! This morning I gave him Chicken & Liver pate style, left over from when I was trying out 36 different flavors & brands of wet on my picky girl, and he scarfed it up! Woo-hoo!

Ferris DOES try to eat Ginger's wet food, but I'm really not worried about that at all, as he eats plenty of his own. His little belly is nice and round, LOL...I'm going to have to watch him to make sure HE'S not a glutton. So far so good...

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No problem
Yeah, that's i use my babies for, Eros & Nike will eat ANYTHING!!! the others are being pretty gosh darn picky I wanted to switch to a more premium wet
but the crew is not cooperating, I have given them just about every flavor from every different brand and I've gotten very few rave reviews Merrick's New England Boil was well received, as was Solid Gold's (at least by Pandora ) but all those are fish, so I am just going back to the Meow Mix pouches as they are all popular as well as being the only wet Sapphire and Jinx will eat... Jinx wouldn't even eat the Friskies!!! I only bought that for her to try to get her to eat cause she had mouth sores *ouch*