By Dr. I Elizabeth Borgmann. There is much less room for error in feeding cats than in feeding dogs! Don’t goof up here or you will see yourself faced with significant vet bills either in the short term or the long term. This is one area where you can have a tremendous impact on your pet’s health. Here are some answers to the most common questions about feeding kittens:

Does my kitten need to be on kitten food or can it eat my other cat’s food?

Ughhh! Do not feed your kitten adult food. The occasional stolen kibble is not an issue but it needs to be on a kitten food! This is required for optimum bone development. You can cause urinary issues (crystals) from feeding a growing kitten adult cat food. Just don’t go there!

Is it okay if my cat eats my dog’s food?

The odd kibble is fine for cats to eat. Dog food should never be a major part of your cat’s diet. Cats need more added amino acids to their diet and will have significant health issues if they eat dog food (cardiomyopathy – aka heart failure – anyone?).

How long should my kitten be on a growth or developmental diet?

Your kitten should be eating a growth diet until it reaches 80% of its anticipated adult weight. That is usually around 8 to 9 months of age. Older recommendations ranged from 6 to 12 months. Switching them at 6 months is pushing it. Waiting until 12 months to transition kittens to an adult diet can increase the likeliness of obesity.

Should I feed dry, canned or both? If I feed both, should I mix them together?

Feed both! Cats are not dogs. Feed both! (Yes, I said that twice…on purpose!)

Kittens develop texture preferences very early on. They need to get accustomed to both dry and wet food from an early age. If you don’t do this, and they need a very particular prescription diet when they get older, they may not accept the diet. If you can get good quality diets with different shapes and canned food with different textures, go for it! It will make your life easier later on!

Canned food improves urinary tract health in cats. They can make very strong concentrated urine. This is a mechanism that allows the cat family to occupy very dry climates. But strong concentrated urine over a long period of time can have detrimental effects on the bladder. Canned food helps increase water intake thereby reducing the likelihood this will happen.

You can mix the dry and canned together if you like but I find that to be a waste of money! Canned food does not last! So I leave dry food out all day and night and top it up when needed. I offer canned food every morning and night (but only as much as the cats will eat). After about an hour, I throw the remainder out.
How much should I feed? Should I just leave the bowl full or should I give measured feedings?

Measured feedings is the way to go. Obesity occurs in about 60% of the cats we see. Another 20% are chunky. This is especially true for indoor cats.

Start with the recommendations on the bag and then weigh your cat on a regular basis. (No excuses…there are lots of mid-sized scales available. Most healthy cats will average around 10-12 lbs.) Your vet can help you learn how to determine your cat’s body condition score as an additional tool to weight control.

Feed at set times (usually twice a day). Cats have an amazing internal clock and they will tell you when you are late! And cats, like people, do best with a steady routine.

My cat is always at the food bowl. How do I get him/her to eat less?

Cats are like people. They eat out of boredom or due to stress just as much as we do.
Start by putting the food bowls in a low traffic room. Laundry rooms are popular for this. If the food is in a high traffic area, then the cats will stop for a nibble every time they pass even though they are not ‘hungry’. Think of it like the ‘chips on the coffee table’ syndrome. I bet you are surprised how fast those disappear but if you had to get up and get some from the cupboard each time, you would eat have the amount.

Put the food bowls up. Make it a bit of work to get the food. Then they are eating because they want the food and they are hungry.
Don’t forget to make their environment interesting with cat scratch posts and lots of toys. Ever notice how much less you eat if you are busy and having fun?

Keep the stress levels low too. Cats will stress eat so make sure they have a nice save quiet spot to rest.
Feed canned food. It contains at least 70% of water. Not only is that good for the bladder, it’s good for appetite control.

Cat food seems so expensive. Can I feed the cheaper foods?

If by expensive you mean high quality and by cheaper you mean low quality…the answer is no! You might be able to get away with this if you have a female cat, but don’t try it with male cats.

The most common complication of feeding poorer quality cat foods is the formation of crystals. These are painful! Imagine having to urinate out sharp pointy needles? Now imagine your urethra getting plugged and not being able to urinate at all! Not only is this potentially lethal, it can be expensive to treat. So…if you would rather pay your vet than a pet food manufacturer…by all means feed cheap food.

Be careful!!!! Marketing if powerful and many of these new expensive foods (often marked with catch phrases like ‘natural’ or better yet ‘holistic’) are just as likely to cause crystals in the urine.

Ask your vet for recommendations. It is next to impossible to sort through the pet foods in the store on your own.
I don’t want to buy my food at the vets because they are so expensive. The vets must be making a fortune off those foods. Why do they do that?

Well, actually, they are neither that expensive or profitable. There is substantially (hugely!!!) less mark up on the veterinary side of food than on the retail side. The foods sold to veterinarians are the top line foods. The companies that sell to the vets want the food to go with vet nutritional counselling. This way, there are fewer complications with the food. These foods also have much more research behind them. They will save you money by reducing (not eliminating) health problems.
Regardless of what the retailers might tell you, the majority of vets want to see your pet remain healthy. Preventive care and preventive medicine is goal of the majority of veterinarians.

Hopefully, this has answered the majority of your questions on feeding your growing kitten. Next we will discuss the controversy over having cats stay strictly indoor or letting them outside once in a while.

Dr. I Elizabeth Borgmann

Dr. Borgmann has been practicing in the Fraser Valley for over 8 years and can be reached at the Whatcom Road Veterinary Clinic