From Kitten to Senior Cat Food: Cat Nutrition by Lifestage

Your cat's age is something that needs to be considered when choosing the proper food for your cat, whether you're searching for kitten food or senior cat food. Selecting one that provides your furry friend with the optimum nutrition she needs at each lifestage can help to ensure a long, healthy life.

When searching for a cat food check the packaging to see if it matches your cat's lifestage. A cat requires different levels of nutrition at every lifestage, so it is important to choose one that matches her energy level, metabolic rate and other basic needs. Some times all this information can make cat food labels not easy to read, however, so it's important to know what your cat needs and why.

As classified by the American Animal Hospital Association, there are six identifiable stages of a cat's life, each of which requires its own smart pet food choices.

Newborn Kittens (Birth to 4 months)

Newborn kittens will stay with their mother for the first 8 or so weeks as they will rely on their mother's milk to help them grow and fight off diseases that their immune system is quite equipped to deal with. During this time, they will do little else other than nurse and sleep.

When your kitten is at least 8-9 weeks old she will be ready to wean off her mother's milk and come home with you. After she is weaned and ready to go home, you'll immediately discover that she's a ball of energy with a zest for life. At this stage, a kitten's routine follows the pattern of eat, sleep, run around like crazy, repeat. She requires the right nutrients to maintain her boundless energy.

Now that she is weaned from her mother, whether from her mother or bottle-feeding, your new kitten food should be made with fatty acids, such as DHA (a common source of this nutrient is fish oil), folic acid, and taurine, an amino acid that aids in the vital development of the immune and digestive systems, heart functions and vision quality. Protein is another vital component of kitten food and comes from a variety of sources, including meat and grains. She is growing at an astonishing rate (this stage is equivalent to the first ten years of a human's life!) and needs energy to keep up the pace. It's important that these nutrients are always in the right amounts to ensure the best opportunity to be healthy as she grows. In addition to nutrition, don't forget about other kitten care opportunities.

Junior Cats (7 Months to 2 years) and Prime Cats (3-6 years)

If your fur baby's behavior changes as she approaches the one-year mark, don't be surprised. She's beginning adolescence and then moving on to adulthood, lifestages that correspond to the human ages of 12-27 (Junior) and 28-40 (Prime).

Technically, cats are considered to be adults at the age of one year and that will extend through year six, but age is not necessarily a deterministic factor in how active your cat will be. Many cats will be very lively well into their double-digit years. For this reason, one of your considerations for feeding a young adult cat should be activity level. An average kitty will need enough food for "maintenance" energy to go about her daily activities, but if your cat is extremely active and spends hours sprinting around the house, she'll need a few more calories to sustain her. If your pet likes to laze in the sunshine all day, she might require carefully measured meals to keep her trim. Talk to your vet about your cat's activity level, as they can help you determine if your cat needs more or less calories.

Adult cats require the right amount of fat and protein in their meals as well as other nutrients like taurine. Consider the Hill's^® Science Diet^® line of cat food. These products, ranging from kitten food all the way up to senior cat food, provide balanced nutrition in a variety of options for adult cats of all ages, sizes and activity levels, including hairball, sensitive stomach and light formulas.