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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / July 2003Feeding dilemma
We have a feeding dilemma we would like advise on. Here's the background information for those of you in rpchb. 5 adult cats, ranging from 3 to 6-7 years old. All in great health and very fit and trim. The older cat had struvite crystals in the past, but since we switched to two wet-food feedings per day he's done great. We recently added 2 kittens (fosters we decided to keep), they are about 7 weeks old now. The kittens despise canned kitten food. It will actually spoil before they'll touch it. They like the kibble allright (and our oldest cat *loves* the kitten kibble), but we don't want to feed them mostly dry food and it's just hard to separate them for meals. We feed premium foods, currently in the mix are Nutro gourmet California Chicken Supreme (the only food they will *always* eat), Nutro pouches, and just started with the new Pro Plan cans (which look good!). None of our cats will eat mushy food, it has to be cuts/chunks in sauce. Now, the dilemma is, do we force the kittens to eat kitten food or will they be ok eating a premium-quality adult food? The basic difference is just the protein/fat content, right? Looking at IAMS for example, yields the following numbers: Protein Fat Moisture Kitten 14.5% 10.5% 68% Cat 10.0% 6.5% 78% If we convert them all to dry-matter basis: Kitten 45% 33% Cat 45% 30% Not much difference, right? What do y'all think? Victor M. Martinez martiv@FAKE.che.utexas.edu http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv > Now, the dilemma is, do we force the kittens to eat kitten food or will > they be ok eating a premium-quality adult food? The basic difference is [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Not much difference, right? What do y'all think? Try giving 'em all what they want and what's easiest for now. Kittens tastes will change and you can adjust the diet later. -- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from masochism <me | Now, the dilemma is, do we force the kittens to eat kitten food or will | they be ok eating a premium-quality adult food? IMHO, they'll do just fine if they're basically healthy to start with. | The basic difference is just the protein/fat content, right? Theoretically, yes, but there seems to be a lot of marketing gimmickry involved too. If you need to "fatten" the kittens up a bit, you could try a food like Innova - feeding the adults slightly reduced portions at the same time. ("Feeding instructions" from manufacturers oftne grossly overstate the requirements - feed the cat according to how much it will eat, not how much the labels say.) >IMHO, they'll do just fine if they're basically healthy to start with. I think they're healthy now, but we had trouble getting them to start eating when we first got them. They couldn't have been more than 4 weeks old. Poor things... supposedly their mom got run over by a car. :( >If you need to "fatten" the kittens up a bit, you could try a food like >Innova - feeding the adults slightly reduced portions at the same time. We used to feed Innova, until Xoxo developed struvite crystals. We then chose food with lower magnesium content. None of the super-premiums (Innova, Felidae, etc) meet this test, unfortunately. >("Feeding instructions" from manufacturers oftne grossly overstate the >requirements - feed the cat according to how much it will eat, not how >much the labels say.) We give them plenty of wet food twice a day, plus there's always kibble for snacking at will.  SignatureVictor M. Martinez martiv@FAKE.che.utexas.edu http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv Victor M. Martinez saw Sally selling seashells by the seashore and told us all about it on Mon, 21 Jul 2003 18:08:04 -0500: >We have a feeding dilemma we would like advise on. Here's the background >information for those of you in rpchb. >5 adult cats, ranging from 3 to 6-7 years old. All in great health and There's not much point in trying to feed the kittens on special kitten food if they won't touch it! Better to give them adult catfood... it's not like they had special kitten food a hundred or even fifty years ago, and there were plenty of healthy cat families around :) SignatureKaren AKA Kajikit Here kitty kitty kitty... visit http://www.catslaves.org! Come and visit my part of the web: Kajikit's Corner: http://Kajikit.netfirms.com/ and/or http://www.kajikitscorner.com Allergyfree Eating Recipe Swap: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Allergyfree_Eating Ample Aussies Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ampleaussies/ Victor keep in mind that dry food is extremely bad for cats teeth giving them more tarter build up than moist food and can lead to lots of dental work when they're adults. If I were you I'd try to get the kittens into wet food at this early age, try to find a kind they'd like (my new 4 month old loves Nutro Max) and feed them the dry food also but not as much. A diet of strictly dry food isn't very healthy. The main difference between kitten food and adult food is the calorie and fat intake. Kittens need extra fat and calories to ensure a regular growth rate until they're about a year old. If you have to feed them adult food then be sure you add extra ingredients to ensure their blood sugar doesn't become low which can be dangerous. > We have a feeding dilemma we would like advise on. Here's the background > information for those of you in rpchb. [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > martiv@FAKE.che.utexas.edu > http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv |
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