What Do Ya'll Think Is Best???

[Jess751]

Ok so as you all know I am keeping one of the kittens from Baxter and Sandy's litter. Well Baxter is on adult food (although he has been eating some of the kitten food in the middle of the night :roll:) and Sandy and obviously the kitten are on kitten food. I planned to get Sandy off the kitten food after the babies are weaned, but Gypsy will need to stay on it. And I was thinking about just mixing the adult and kitten together becuase I know that everyone is going to eat a little of both anyway. Is that a bad idea??

[charliebubs]

That sounds okay Jess!! As long as the kitten that's staying gets some kitten food (as it has the extra nutrients in it that it will need) it won't really matter if it eats adult food as well and vice versa!!

Just be careful with the adults eating kitten food as it can be quite rich for them and give them upset tummies. ;)

[Jess751]

Thanks. And if it matter any my adults are only 1 and 2 years old.

[smudgley]

Personally I wouldn't mix the 2.
I'd feed the adult food to the adults & make sure that the kitten got the kitten food. It is difficult (been there myself recently) & it's much easier now that our youngest is on adult food. But try to feed them seperately if you can, the baby will benefit from the correct nutrition. ;)

[Mags]

Personally I think it would be fine to mix the two foods together Jess;)

When I brought Cassie home as an 8 week old kitt, I started giving her kitten food and it gave her the runs:? I took her to the vet and he told me to put her on adult food as the kitten food was too rich for her. It did her absolutly no harm at all.........but she was about 9 weeks at the change over. I've forgotten how old your kittens are now ......maybe wait until they are about 8 weeks? :)

[Jess751]

My Kittens will be 5 weeks on Teusday. But Im not talking about doing it now. Im saying when everyone is gone and its just my three.

[Jess751]

Ok I have another question. (sry) Do ya'll let your kittens as in your litters have some time out and to explore and expereance being in a household?? Or do you always keep them in a seperate room or pen. I have a one bedroom apartment so I dont really have a seperate room to keep them in. But I was thinking about letting them out of the play pen and putting them back when Im not home.

[charliebubs]

Ok I have another question. (sry) Do ya'll let your kittens as in your litters have some time out and to explore and expereance being in a household?? Or do you always keep them in a seperate room or pen. I have a one bedroom apartment so I dont really have a seperate room to keep them in. But I was thinking about letting them out of the play pen and putting them back when Im not home.

Yes, I would definitely let them out to explore. They will need to get used to household things - like the washing machine and hoover, so that they aren't scared when they go to their new homes. :)

Just make sure that you close up any kitten sized gaps that they could get stuck into and make the place as safe as possible and always supervise them.

When my litter got to about 6 weeks old they were trying to get out of the pen anyway - so I let them into one room to start with and then gradually the whole house (although they weren't brave enough to try the stairs until they were about 7/8 weeks old!!)

Hope that helps!!

[smudgley]

agree with Charlie.

Can't stress enough the importance of good socilisation & the benefits it has to them for the rest of their life if they've been exposed to lots of things as kittens.

I've been involved with studies (dogs not cats, but same applies) to prove this! :cool:

[dandysmom]

I definitely agree about letting them out to explore/adjust! Dandy's breeder gave his kittens free run of the house when they were old enough and he was the most sociable friendly cat I ever had. Leia wasn't properly socialized as a kitten, and she is spooky and very shy with people.
As to the kitten food: can't see that mixing it would do any harm if it doesn't bother the older cats tummies! I got kitten food for Dandy who spurned it and ate the adults food; and the girls were delighted to eat his kitten food! So they all ended up on adult moist food.

[Jess751]

Ok so here is what I did. I didnt want to give them run of everything all at once as I thought that would be way too much. So, I stretched out the play pen and used it to block off my kitchen area. (Its actually a kitchen/dining room but there is no table, but a desk for the computer and a shelf case thing). I put up an old (small) dog crate with a sheet inside it and covered it with two pillow cases (both of which I hae never used a probably wont ever use) to make a 'safe' place for them. Im planning to keep the litter box in the bathroom but I think that it might be better to start it in the kitchen and move it closer to the bathroom day by day, as its a pretty big room. Sound good??

[Mags]

Sounds good to me Jess ...........just make sure there are no small gaps they can squeeze into and get trapped ;)

[Jess751]

Sounds good to me Jess ...........just make sure there are no small gaps they can squeeze into and get trapped ;)

Yeah I kitten proofed the whole area. ;)

They are having a BLAST!! Its like they had too much Sugar. They are running all over the place, exploring, playing; their just having a good ol' time!! :mrgreen:

Sandy seems to be a bit nervous with them being all over though. She is doing this growl talk thing. :?: :smt102 :?:

[dandysmom]

We may not understand it, but I bet the kittens do!!! Sounds as if they're having a ball! Pics????

[Jess751]

I will get some pics but right now they are kinda taking it easy. They were sleeping and now they are just playing inside the crate. When they have a venture out again I will definately get some pics :mrgreen: