It is important to feed our cats food that fulfills their daily nutritional and calorie requirement in order for them to stay healthy and active selves.
A question that revolves around quite a lot when it comes to cat food is whether can you feed food that is specifically made for a kitten to an adult or a senior cat. This post is going to make it very clear to you if it can be done or not.
The thing about meals for kittens is that they are high in calories, fat, and protein. And it makes sense because these little creatures have to grow and such a meal allows good muscle growth and provides the kittens with energy to compensate for that active lifestyle.
To answer the question on a very simple level, yes there is no problem in feeding an adult cat kitten food but try not to make it a regular unless you face certain circumstances with your adult cat that I am about to mention.
Ideally, a cat should be fed kitten food till it is 12 months old and 24 months old in the case of the Maine Coone. After that, the cat must be shifted to adult food meals.
However, when a cat becomes senior, which means crosses the age of 12 years, it starts developing many health-related issues that may cause it to lose its appetite resulting in potential weight loss.
In case of such a situation, you can feed kitten food to your senior cat. It is high in calories so that factor will help your cat gain weight but it is important to use it very carefully and to make sure that you don’t overfeed your cat with it. Or the better option would be to give your senior cats food specially formulated for them.
This brings me to one problem that kitten food can cause to adult cats. If you regularly feed it to your adult cat, it can make your adult cat obese and I am sure you know it is very difficult to return from there. So, be sure to feed it to your adult cat only when it is required and only the required amount.
For cats who lose their appetite as they grow old, kitten food can actually help them regain that love for food. And this is made possible due to the high amount of fats and fatty acids in the meal that make it very tasty.
At times adult cats are unable to chew into adult cat food, you can also give your cat kitten food in such a case but you have to make sure the nutritional intake does not exceed the required amount.
During pregnancy, it is recommended that you feed your cat food that is high in calories and high in fats. Kitten food meets these requirements perfectly and you definitely can feed the expecting mother kitten food so that she stays healthy and well fed and so does her babies.
All in all, there is no harm in feeding kitten food to your adult cat as long as you are aware of what is it that you are feeding your adult cat in terms of the caloric intake and the nutrition that it consumes. Rest assured, your older cats will absolutely love the taste of kitten food thanks to the high-fat levels.