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Why move your nearly grown kitten to a premium adult cat food? Because quality counts. It's crucial to continue the superb nutrition she's been getting from a premium kitten food into adulthood. Downgrading to a basic nutrition brand at this stage of her life may upset her digestive system and certainly won't provide her with the same type of nutrition she was raised on.
Think of a baby. When it's time to start giving him solid food, you wouldn't feed your child anything less than the best nutrition you can buy. The same is true for your maturing kitten. She needs the best age-appropriate food there is to help maintain overall health. Premium foods such as IAMS are formulated to meet all her needs and provide additional benefits.
They're specifically designed to provide your cat with a formula that features:
High-quality ingredients
Balanced, optimal levels of protein, fat, moderately fermentable fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, which make costly supplements unnecessary
High-quality recipes and great taste
Standards that meet or exceed Association of American Feed Control Officials standards
Nutrient-dense formulas that are right for each life stage
Product guarantees
What do all of these features add up to? A happy, healthy cat. With premium cat food, you can expect to see these important indicators of good health. They contribute to providing your cat with a long, healthy life:
Exceptional muscle tone
A shiny, luxurious coat
Healthy skin and bones
Clear, bright eyes and clean teeth
Small, firm stools
Founded upon decades of research, premium formulas from IAMS help maintain your cat's health and help provide him with the nutrition he needs for a long life. Generic brands simply may not match the level of expertise that goes into every bag of IAMS cat food.
When your cat is about 12 months of age, it's time to change her diet to a premium maintenance formula. When you transition your cat to an adult diet, it's important to monitor her weight and body condition and adjust portions if necessary.
Because cats generally eat only what they need, free-choice feeding is adequate for most cats. (Free-choice makes food available to your cat around the clock and lets her eat when and how much she needs.) Indoor cats that don't get much exercise, however, may overeat if fed free-choice. For them, portion-controlled feeding twice a day is a better routine.
To determine how much food to give your cat, check the recommendations of the pet food manufacturer on the label. Use the guidelines and weigh your cat on a weekly basis. If your cat is gaining or losing weight and shouldn't be, slightly adjust her daily intake and weigh her again the following week.
To avoid intestinal upsets, make the change from a kitten formula to an adult diet over a period of four days with the following method:
Day One: Fill your cat's dish with 75% kitten food and 25% adult food.
Day Two: Mix adult and kitten food in a 50/50 ratio.
Day Three: Feed your cat a mixture that's 75% adult food and 25% kitten food.
Day Four: Switch to 100% adult formula.
Linoleic acid, a naturally occurring omega-6 fatty acid found in common pet-food ingredients such as corn and chicken fat, is a required nutritional component of the canine and feline diet.
Fatty acids are the building blocks of dietary fat and are formed by specific combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
Certain groups of fatty acids, called omega-3 (fatty acids in which the first double bond is located at the third carbon atom) and omega-6 (fatty acids in which the first double bond is at the sixth carbon atom), are particularly important to various functions in the cat's body.
The first double bond is located at the sixth carbon atom and, therefore, is an omega-6 fatty acid.
Omega-6 fatty acids are essential for maintenance of skin and coat condition, normal growth, proper membrane structure, and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.
Linoleic acid is the most important omega-6 fatty acid because it cannot be synthesized by cats, and it is used to make other omega-6 fatty acids.
Cats also require arachidonic acid, because they cannot synthesize it from linoleic acid.
Most pet foods contain more than the required amount of linoleic acid. However, IAMS research shows that it is not just the amount, but the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, that is most beneficial to cats.
The optimal omega-6:omega-3 fatty acid ratio to maintain a healthy skin and coat in dogs and cats is between 5:1 and 10:1, so five to 10 omega-6 fatty acids should be present for every one omega-3 fatty acid.
