Affordable food for "all life stages"?

[BeccaT]

So I just discovered that "all life stages" food exists for cats and I'm very intrigued. To give the short version, my household currently consists of 2 adult cats and 1 kitten. The adults get fed dry food in small portions throughout the day via an automatic feeder, something my husband insisted on and refuses to go back to manual feeding and the kitten has gotten used to the sound of the food dispensing, something the adults were already used to, so he rushes to their food and I have to rush to the pantry to get his kitten food out and give it to him before he steals the adult's food.

I've been trying my best to figure out a way to handle this, from microchip feeders (which are expensive) to suggesting we go back to manual feeding until the kitten is a year old (which was shut down right away by my husband), as right now I have to time his feeding with theirs and then he goes into the guest bedroom at night, which I no longer want to do. This is also an issue for the odd time me and my husband are out of town, I don't want him to be locked away in the guest room the whole time we're away.

The problem is that I just ordered this food for our adults to try as they need a bit of weight losing but I assume this is for adults only. The kitten is currently on the same brand but for kittens, and is given 1 tin of wet food at night. I'm unsure of an affordable, yet healthy brand of dry food for "all life stages". Is this type of dry food actually good for kittens and adults? I'm also open to other suggestions for feeding all 3 cats together and making sure the kitten gets his food only, and the adults don't get to his food.

 

[maggie101]

CatFoodDB - Purina ONE Cat Food Reviews

Purina ONE cat food reviews from CatFoodDB -- Includes nutritional analysis, ingredient lists, allergen alerts and more.

catfooddb.com

I do not feed dry but here's info on purina one
I feed my 3 cats in separate rooms. I have to board them at a pet resort.2 of mycats will be together,Coco and Peaches. Peaches does not like fish so I will mix in fish in cocos meals

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I just googled "all life stages dry cat food and several things came up (but not the Purina One) Purina Cat Chow is one, however.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, I have a couple questions; How old is the kitten? Are you feeding him as much as he can eat?

 

[BeccaT]

I just googled "all life stages dry cat food and several things came up (but not the Purina One) Purina Cat Chow is one, however.

I've found a few yeah, I just wondered if any were actually good in terms of quality and for a growing kitten, and which ones in particular. The three that I found that are easily obtainable for me are: "Natural balance original ultra", "Solid gold indoor cat food", and "Nulo freestyle cat and kitten food". I'm open to looking at others though if they're affordable!

Hi, I have a couple questions; How old is the kitten? Are you feeding him as much as he can eat?

The kitten is maybe 13-14 weeks old by now? I'm feeding him as much as he can eat, absolutely. I give him his dry food when his sisters get theirs but I don't restrict him, I fill the bowl and let him eat as much as he wants. Then I give him some wet food when I put him in his room at night. I'm mostly looking for a dry food that all 3 of them can eat and they not have any problems or be deficient in anything at their respective ages, so that I don't have to worry about who is eating who's food when I have to be away from home.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I've found a few yeah, I just wondered if any were actually good in terms of quality and for a growing kitten, and which ones in particular.

In my opinion, the best food is the one your cat(s) will eat. And they can be very picky. If you want to be able to feed them all together and not worry, then I would select one of the ones you have found, buy a small bag, and see how it goes. All of them will be nutritionally complete unless they say "supplemental". Be sure to mix just a little bit of the new food into their old food and slowly increase the amount of the new food to avoid any digestive issues and also allow them to get used to the taste of the new food.

Some cats live very long lives on Meow Mix (which I personally think is not a very good food) and other cats who eat what I would think is a very good diet for cats (high protein, low carb) don't live very long due to one reason or another. There are no guarantees.

Are you feeding your adult cats any wet food. Many of us here feed ONLY wet food, me included, so it's hard to advise on dry

 

[Furballsmom]

I like these two dry foods;
Blue True Solutions Perfect Coat and Halo Sensitive Stomach Holistic

I'm mostly looking for a dry food that all 3 of them can eat and they not have any problems or be deficient in anything at their respective ages, so that I don't have to worry about who is eating who's food when I have to be away from home.

What you could consider doing for a couple more months for your baby, is to mix a kitten kibble into the other dry food.

Or, there are a number of all life stage choices here;
https://www.chewy.com/s?query=all life stages dry cat food&nav-submit-button=

 

[BeccaT]

In my opinion, the best food is the one your cat(s) will eat. And they can be very picky. If you want to be able to feed them all together and not worry, then I would select one of the ones you have found, buy a small bag, and see how it goes. All of them will be nutritionally complete unless they say "supplemental". Be sure to mix just a little bit of the new food into their old food and slowly increase the amount of the new food to avoid any digestive issues and also allow them to get used to the taste of the new food.

Some cats live very long lives on Meow Mix (which I personally think is not a very good food) and other cats who eat what I would think is a very good diet for cats (high protein, low carb) don't live very long due to one reason or another. There are no guarantees.

Are you feeding your adult cats any wet food. Many of us here feed ONLY wet food, me included, so it's hard to advise on dry

Thank you so much! I intend to get a small bag and mix it in with their current food to see if they take to it because in the past, one of our cats has been very sensitive to different foods and it took us a long time to find a dry food that worked for her (which is how we settled on Purina One). We used to feed both of our adult cats a mix of both dry and wet food, but we came across a problem where they refused to eat the exact same wet food from any other place than the one we initially got it from, and we lost the ability to buy it from there until recently, so now I'm slowly integrating wet meals back into their diet when I'm home, although they sadly won't be on only wet food anymore.

I like these two dry foods;
Blue True Solutions Perfect Coat and Halo Sensitive Stomach Holistic

What you could consider doing for a couple more months for your baby, is to mix a kitten kibble into the other dry food.

Or, there are a number of all life stage choices here;
https://www.chewy.com/s?query=all life stages dry cat food&nav-submit-button=

Thank you so much! This is a huge help. My only concern with mixing adult and kitten dry food is that one of the adults may go to that one (if I purchased an extra automatic feeder, like my husband wants) rather than the one that's adult-only, which would give the adult cats too much of something they no longer need and the kitten not enough of what he needs. Or is this not the case if I decided to do it for all 3 of them?

 

[Furballsmom]

Or is this not the case if I decided to do it for all 3 of them?

I was thinking about for all three of them, and only until your baby is a little older, maybe just another couple months until you can eliminate the kitten food and have everyone on an all life stages food.

 

[BeccaT]

I was thinking about for all three of them, and only until your baby is a little older, maybe just another couple months until you can eliminate the kitten food and have everyone on an all life stages food.

Is it safe for me to do this without the adult cats gaining too much weight from consuming kitten food, too? Does it matter how much kitten dry food he consumes? Considering he gets a wet kitten meal a day, too. I was only planning on giving all 3 of them an all life stages food when 2 are adults and 1 is still a kitten, then of course when he reaches closer to the 1 year mark, introduce him to the same adult food that the current adults are on.

 

[Furballsmom]

I was thinking about having the adult and kitten food mixed, and feeding all the felines this for the next couple of months until your kitten is about six months old, then to move them all to All Life Stages, so that the older cats hopefully don't have weight gain. I believe it is important to provide the kitten with either some kitten kibble, or more kitten wet food, until he's at least six months. The older cats can get some exercise to work off any weight they might put on
But you know the dynamics of your house and your adult cats, I know you'll figure out something that works for them

 

[BeccaT]

I was thinking about having the adult and kitten food mixed, and feeding all the felines this for the next couple of months until your kitten is about six months old, then to move them all to All Life Stages, so that the older cats hopefully don't have weight gain. I believe it is important to provide the kitten with either some kitten kibble, or more kitten wet food, until he's at least six months. The older cats can get some exercise to work off any weight they might put on
But you know the dynamics of your house and your adult cats, I know you'll figure out something that works for them

I'm still leaning more towards feeding all 3 of them an all life stages kibble until the kitten is older, I'm very worried about the adults gaining weight as one of them is already needing to lose some weight. I do try to exercise them but the most exercise they really get is running after the kitten, the one that's on the chunkier side has started to get picky about her toys so it's hard to keep her interested.

 

[Furballsmom]

Maybe you can give the kitten more wet food separately so it benefits from the increased nutritional content.

 

[BeccaT]

Maybe you can give the kitten more wet food separately so it benefits from the increased nutritional content.

Sounds like a better way to handle things, yeah! I also don't mind giving him his kitten dry food when I'm able/when I'm home. It's more a concern of mine for when I'm not able to supervise all 3 or be home, which is actually infrequent.

Thank you again for all the advice, I'll start looking for some all life stages food near me and I'll try to get some small bags to see if they'll all take to it.

 

[Furballsmom]

That sounds like a great plan, let us know how things go