Do kittens need kitten food and seniors need senior food?

[longdiling]

I have a 7 year old cat who is healthy and happy on Butcher's tins of cat food. But I'm wondering whether she needs to be on a specific senior cat food?

Also, I'm getting a 9 week old kitten on Friday. She currently eats Whiskas dry kitten food. I'm conscious this probably isn't the best food for her so I want to slowly move her off it. Does she need specific kitten food or can I get her onto the Butcher's?

Thank you!

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

I'm not sure about kittens but I don't feed my 11 year old senior food. Sometimes he has senior dry food, sometimes adult depending on what is on offer at the time. He has Natures Menu pouches and doesn't like the senior ones so I just give him the normal ones.

[cozietoesie]

Kitten food is a bit richer than ordinary food I think - more nutrients - so probably a good idea, all other things being equal. (But they're not going to collapse and die if they're given adult rations.)

And I've had much older cats than that on ordinary complete cat food. These days, 7 isn't 'senior' at all in my view.

[madgingermunchkin]

Kittens should be on kitten food.

But I wouldn't put a healthy cat on senior food. It would only be if they were struggling to keep weight on, or a medical issue.

[longdiling]

Great, thank you all! Kitten food it is then. I have to say 7 didn't seem to be particularly senior to me but I noticed the senior cat food tends to be age 7+. Keeping weight on is certainly not an issue for my fat fluff ball. In fact she's been on a diet for a while and is slowly losing weight to get her to healthy proportions. She's doing well on Butcher's so we'll stick with that.

Kitten pictures will be posted at the end of the week!

[cozietoesie]

See this. 🙂

There have been some revisions to cat age stages over the years so it looks as if the pet food manufacturers haven't felt any urgent need to update their labels etc. Cats are just living longer these days what with better care generally.

[longdiling]

Thank you! That's very interesting. So she's mature then. Hopefully we'll make it to geriatric

[cozietoesie]

My own current lad is most elderly so my perspective is skewed, I'll admit.