Okay here's the deal. My fiance and I have a cat at about 1.5 years of age (thus still young and fairly adaptable). This past weekend we were helpless against the powers of the World's Cutest Kitten (TM) and we brought him home.

Needless to say the original cat wasn't too thrilled. We expected this though, and we aren't too concerned. As it is, she's already starting to warm up to the little guy a little bit. She still hisses at him but she's also curious now and follows him everywhere and sniffs him when he's actually lying quietly (a rarity!).

Here's my concern though - Obviously little Caesar has kitten food whereas Cricket has been eating adult formula for quite some time. We live in an apartment and thus we don't have space enough to have 2 litterboxes so we can't seperate them into different rooms and that sort of defeats the purpose anyway. The problem is that Caesar has quite an affection for adult food and has been eating quite a bit of Cricket's food.

1. Should I be terribly worried about what will happen if Caesar eats adult rather than kitten formula (for another 3 months which is when he will be fixed and then eat adult)?

2. Should I be terribly worried if Cricket is forced to eat kitten food for the same next three months because Caesar eats everything in her dish?

3. Is there any other solution besides separation that has worked? I worry that it's upsetting to Cricket to see someone else eat her food, though she doesn't do anything more than hiss and walk away.

We've been doing the spray bottle trick, spraying Caesar when he puts his head into her dish (both sets of bowls are on opposite ends of the dining room so it's not like they're side by side and confusing). However he's stubborn and I'm sure that when we're not home he's still eating her food.

Advice? I've never had two cats before.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Answers

My advice? Give up, and save lower your own blood-pressure!

Kitten food has more protein (and probably a few other things) than adult cat food. It's also manufactured to fall apart easier, and not damage the kitten's baby teeth. It's really not surprising that this high-pro food would appeal to an adult cat, and it most likely will not harm her, as long as she doesn't have any urinary tract problems currently (she's young enough that it would be a surprise if she did). Eating his food for three months won't harm her, although she may gain a little weight, especially if they are indoor-only cats.

As for him, well, we were in the exact position you were, except that our adult cat was 4. Our male kitten consistently refused to eat his kitten food -- we had no idea why. So we asked the vet, and he said it shouldn't be a problem for the little dude to eat adult cat food, as long as it was "regular" food (not the less active or low-cal stuff). He said that it wouldn't harm him developmentally, although it might harm his teeth. So we gave up trying to force him to eat kitten food. Although I usually mixed his food half-and-half, and he didn't seem to notice the difference and ate it all.

Our kitten is 2 years old now, and he's just fine.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

If it is a show cat that you paid thousands and thousands of dollars for, sure - knock yourself feeding him kitten food. If it is going to be a housepet, who cares? It won't kill him. I know that there is a slightly different formulation for kitten food, but honestly, it is such a slight difference it really doesn't matter that much. And the concept of "kitten food" is a pretty new one, and several thousands of years worth of kittens seemed to have done just fine without it.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

If the little cat isn't going to eat the kitten food, then why put it out at all? Just put out a double portion of the regular cat food and be done with it!

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

I had a similar problem. I had two cats, one three years older than the other. The youngest one was very tiny and had a tendency to throw- up, while the older one was a bit pudgy. I wanted to put the older one on the less active cat food formula, but I was worried about the younger one getting enough calories. So I decided to put out a mixture of 3/4 regular, 1/4 less active dry food (which was out at all times), and then fed each of the cats a little bit of moist food in the morning (about 1/4 of the smallish Iams cans - the size bigger than the single serving size), giving the regular to the younger cat and the less- active to the older cat. My cats were so happy to be getting some moist food that they concentrated on their own plates and didn't investigate the other food. May not work with your kitten, but it's an option.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

I had the same issue, and the vet told me that kitten food is unnecessary. As long as it's the high-quality stuff (iams, eukaneuba, etc), kittens can eat the adult food just fine. It only fattens them up faster...

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I gave up and I just mixed the adult formula Iams with kitten formula Iams in the dispenser for our 7 charmers.

I give the kittens a CAN of kitten food as a supplement and some replacer milk as a treat in a corner where it's tight so only they can get to the dish.

End of story:)

Shara may gain some weight but the kittens play chase so often with the big cats that I'm not all that worried.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001