# kitten keeps eating adult cats food



## ownedbycat (Jul 9, 2014)

Hi all,

I'm having an issue where my kitten keeps eating my older cats food.

I'm feeding shadow my kitten animonda and bozita wet food. He is eating this when put down but then when he's eaten maybe half of this so roughly 50g as I tend to feed him about half a 200g tin at a time or 190g tetra pack he then seems to get bored and move on to Rosie's food which is dry food. I use a mix of porta 21 and pro plan urinary tract for her food and also try feeding her at least one pouch of wet food like Felix or Sheba which is all she tends to eat of wet. Also Rosie just won't eat a full days worth of wet food I tried and she just wouldn't eat it and had to give in and feed her dry. Rosie won't eat in meals so I'm not sure how I can stop shadow eating her food without starving Rosie. I've tried putting food in different rooms but this doesn't help. Also shadow has just taken to chewing through the plastic packaging for the dry food in the last few days since I got my last order from zooplus not sure why now after being 5 months old he has started doing this?

Any ideas would be good in case I haven't thought of them.


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## rox666 (May 22, 2012)

If Rosie is having food that you don't want Shadow to eat then the only solution I can think of is a microchip feeder or putting one lot of food in a locked room that has a microchip cat flap in it. 

Ordinary I would say why worry about a kitten eating the older cat's food, but as it is a dry food then I know I wouldn't want a kitten to get used to eating dry as I'd want them on a wet food only.


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## ownedbycat (Jul 9, 2014)

Yeah that's the thing I would prefer him not to eat any dry but other than separating both of them every time I go out or going with the cat flap suggestion I might not have much choice.


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## Amelia66 (Feb 15, 2011)

can you not feed her the wet food first before putting the dry down so she doesn't get the change to pinch it?


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## Torin. (May 18, 2014)

That's quite a large amount of food to feed all at once. Kittens do eat more than adults overall due to growing, but they also have smaller stomachs too. Try feeding little and often using him as your guide. This will probably fill him up better overall across the day, so he'll be less likely to seek food from other sources. But also taking steps with how/ where you feed the older cat would probably be a good idea too


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## CanIgoHome (Oct 25, 2008)

my kitten does that too 
I leave dry kitten food out all day for my kitten and adult cat to eat what the pair want to eat and breakfast and dinner the pair got half a tin (70g) of applaws or comas and pair don't eat all of that too


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

Kitten food is mostly marketing. If your little one eats adult cat food he will still be fine


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## Torin. (May 18, 2014)

Britt said:


> Kitten food is mostly marketing. If your little one eats adult cat food he will still be fine


I think the worry is because the adult is on urinary food. I'm not sure on nutritional things re. cats getting that if they don't need it, nor indeed if it meets kitten requirements. But I do know it is rather expensive, so 'wasting' it on a cat who doesn't need it is probably annoying money-wise. I might have misread the OP, but that's what I interpreted. Could you clarify, ownedbycat?


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

I can highly recommend getting a microchip pet feeder (as mentioned by a previous poster). They are brilliant, and have completely solved the problem of one of my cats eating the other's food.:thumbup1:

The feeder comes from Sureflap btw.


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## ownedbycat (Jul 9, 2014)

Hi Torin. It's not so much what it costs to buy that food, it's mainly that I don't want him eating the dry food at all.

I do tend to put the wet food down first for him and he goes for it. Then after he has stopped eating I will then put Rosie's wet and dry down. Usually within 5 mins of her finishing he will then come back for her food. Then he will randomly come back to it just like Rosie does. Depending on my shifts I try to put his wet food down 3 times a day in roughly 100g a time as usually with my wife working 9-5 she can feed him evening time. Problem is he will still eat her food and his food. By morning it's all gone.


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## ownedbycat (Jul 9, 2014)

Amelia66 said:


> can you not feed her the wet food first before putting the dry down so she doesn't get the change to pinch it?


Hi amelia66,

Your point about feeding her the wet food first is not a bad idea but she doesn't eat it all in one go. Just like her dry food She will pick at all day and by then Shadow will have got her food. Rosie only ever eats a very small amount of wet or dry at a time. I could give it another go and hope she eats more of the wet food first up.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

I recommend a microchip pet feeder. It would solve all your problems in one fell swoop. No more worries.


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## wind1 (Oct 24, 2010)

I would persevere with trying to get Rosie onto wet food. Polly used to be fed completely on dry and protested fiercely when I tried to get her onto wet, but we got there eventually. Try putting some dry food on top of the wet, then mixing a little in with it, gradually reducing it over a few days/weeks, however long it takes. I would be surprised if Rosie starved herself.


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## rox666 (May 22, 2012)

chillminx said:


> I can highly recommend getting a microchip pet feeder (as mentioned by a previous poster). They are brilliant, and have completely solved the problem of one of my cats eating the other's food.:thumbup1:
> 
> The feeder comes from Sureflap btw.


I'm pleased it has worked for you as well . I really can't recommend the feeder enough when it comes to problems like these.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

rox666 said:


> I'm pleased it has worked for you as well . I really can't recommend the feeder enough when it comes to problems like these.


Glad you agree rox666, and btw, thank you very much for kindly giving me your link which enabled me to order one before they were widely available. :thumbsup:

It did take a few weeks to train my cat to use it, as she was put off by the buzzing of the motor (quiet though it is), but I am so glad I persevered. It has eradicated the worry about the other cats eating her food.

I am really surprised more people who need one of these clever innovations are not rushing to buy one!

I wonder if the cat owning general public, were also slow to catch on to the benefits of the microchip cat flap when it first came on the market a few years ago?


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## moggie14 (Sep 11, 2013)

Could Rosie have wet urinary food? 
100g is quite a lot, I'd recommend feeding little and often so they both finish their wet food in one go therefore nothing for them to come back to


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## Samantha Bowling (Sep 14, 2020)

Kittens never used to have kitten food when I was young in the 70's ... all of my kittens (I have had 5 over the last 20 years) have eaten adult food and they are all fine and healthy cats now, I would not worry so much. Cats in the wild don't have kitten food. As someone said above, its all marketing.


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