7.5 Month Old Kitten Seems Like He May Be Getting Fat?

[Richard2121]

I have 4 kittens under the age of one at home. Yes four. Yes I am tired LOL! But I love them and I really enjoy raising them and caring for them. I spoil our fur babies so much. My girlfriend and I feed them wet food only, mostly Fancy Feast Classic Pates (Grain free, high protein, low carb) and we alternate between the kitten formula and the all life stages stuff. We have a couple water fountains available and the kitties drink water occasionally throughout the day. At this point I have Otis who is the eldest kitten at 8.5 months old. He is a domestic medium hair. His growth is slowing down as he is currently 7.1 pounds and is just gaining weight much more slowly. Very healthy, very happy, very active. I think he will be a little smaller. Then there's Koda who we call a "fatty" ever since he was small because he is so enthusiastic about food! He is about 7-7.5 months old and weighs about 8.5 pounds. He has a pot belly (definitely not worms) and seems like he might be getting a little fatter than I would like. I know he needs to grow but he just looks so much wider than Otis and he is still younger by over a month. Should I begin to taper off his food intake? We feed them 3 times a day. I pretty much just feed them as much as they want which usually ends up being about 4-5 3oz cans per meal. Which equates to about 3.25-3.5 Fancy Feast 3oz cans per day. They probably get about 300-350 calories per day but it could be more or less depending on their appetite. I do play with them and they play with each other a lot too. They are usually all engaged in some sort of game together or napping together. I have never owned cats before and really fell in love with them so I want to learn everything I can! I don't want my kitties to be overweight.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! I'm wondering if you can increase Koda's activity in some way rather than decrease food? He's a little young for less food....

 

[rubysmama]

That's a lot of kittens! It must be fun at your house!

Generally the "rule" is to feed kittens as much as they want until they are about 1 year old. I suppose there could be exceptions, so you could consult your vet for advice.

TCS does have this article which maybe helpful:
How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat?

Are they all boys? Have they been neutered yet? Once they get past 6 months, they could start spraying at any time. And females, can get pregnant. Just something else to think about.

 

[Richard2121]

That's a lot of kittens! It must be fun at your house!

Generally the "rule" is to feed kittens as much as they want until they are about 1 year old. I suppose there could be exceptions, so you could consult your vet for advice.

TCS does have this article which maybe helpful:
How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat?

Are they all boys? Have they been neutered yet? Once they get past 6 months, they could start spraying at any time. And females, can get pregnant. Just something else to think about.

Yes they are all boys and a lot of fun!! BELIEVE ME I know all about the whole neutering thing! They are all neutered besides Richard who has some ongoing infectious things he has been dealing with. We are waiting for the eye/nasal discharge PCR Panel to come back with results. Sorry, I do not recall the exact name of the test itself. But we sort of need his diarrhea and coughing to resolve before we can proceed with the surgery. He is almost 7 months old now and we are eager to get it out of the way. You can see my other thread I started My Bengal/siamese Kitten With Persistent Coughing/wheezing After Eating

 

[rubysmama]

I just read through your thread about Richard. Fingers crossed things get better now with the new vet.

 

[GalaxyGirl]

I have 3 kittens from the same litter I found under my cat and now they are my forever babies. One of my kittens is really obsessed with food. She likes to jump on me when I eat and she’d eat the entire house if I let her. What I’ve noticed is she gets “fat” right before a growth spurt. However she’s over her ideal weight already because she has food issues from being abandon.

My vet said pretty much the same as everyone on this board. Let them eat as much as they want they are still growing. We agreed that by 12 months of she’s still not at a healthy weight then we’ll deal with it.

 

[GalaxyGirl]

I have 3 kittens 9 month olds from the same litter I found under my car and now they are my forever babies. One of my kittens is really obsessed with food. She likes to jump on me when I eat and she’d eat the entire house if I let her. What I’ve noticed is she gets “fat” right before a growth spurt. However she’s over her ideal weight already because she has food issues from being abandon.

My vet said pretty much the same as everyone on this board. Let them eat as much as they want they are still growing. We agreed that by 12 months of she’s still not at a healthy weight then we’ll deal with it.

 

[Pucks104]

When we adopted a George and Louie we went by the feed them as much as they’ll eat rule. It worked for George as he seemed good about regulating his on food intake. For Louie it was entirely another matter. He doesn’t seem to have a full switch and will eat whenever food is accessible. He got up to a fat 14 lbs before I got a clue and determined that the eat as much as they want rule didn’t work for all kittens! I began a slow reduction in his food portions and got him down to a svelte 11.9 lbs and he is fit and looks great. I feed only wet foods as well. Just had bloodwork done and everything looks wonderful. When I pick Louie he is much heavier than his appearance would portend! Like he has been consuming bricks. Anyway I think some kitties are inclined to eat more than is appropriate which means they put on excess weight right about the 7-8 month mark when their growth slows. As long as your kitty is getting a good amount of exercise (since there are several kittens I would think their play would contribute to that) then it is probably time to reduce this kitty’s food a bit. Don’t drastically reduce the amount you’re feeding rather just back off a bit and keep a close eye on his weight. The goal would be stabilizing or very slow reduction until you see a proper waist. You may have to adjust the food intake up or down to keep the kittens at a healthy weight but I think many kittens are slowing in their growth at 7-8 months so their food intake needs to be adjusted to keep them at a healthy weight. Exercise is an equally important factor but as long as the kittens have room to run, cat trees to climb and toys to engage in a good workout then most healthy kittens will do so. Not necessarily true once they reach full adulthood.

 

[GalaxyGirl]

When we adopted a George and Louie we went by the feed them as much as they’ll eat rule. It worked for George as he seemed good about regulating his on food intake. For Louie it was entirely another matter. He doesn’t seem to have a full switch and will eat whenever food is accessible. He got up to a fat 14 lbs before I got a clue and determined that the eat as much as they want rule didn’t work for all kittens! I began a slow reduction in his food portions and got him down to a svelte 11.9 lbs and he is fit and looks great. I feed only wet foods as well. Just had bloodwork done and everything looks wonderful. When I pick Louie he is much heavier than his appearance would portend! Like he has been consuming bricks. Anyway I think some kitties are inclined to eat more than is appropriate which means they put on excess weight right about the 7-8 month mark when their growth slows. As long as your kitty is getting a good amount of exercise (since there are several kittens I would think their play would contribute to that) then it is probably time to reduce this kitty’s food a bit. Don’t drastically reduce the amount you’re feeding rather just back off a bit and keep a close eye on his weight. The goal would be stabilizing or very slow reduction until you see a proper waist. You may have to adjust the food intake up or down to keep the kittens at a healthy weight but I think many kittens are slowing in their growth at 7-8 months so their food intake needs to be adjusted to keep them at a healthy weight. Exercise is an equally important factor but as long as the kittens have room to run, cat trees to climb and toys to engage in a good workout then most healthy kittens will do so. Not necessarily true once they reach full adulthood.

You had a 14 pound kitten?

 

[Pucks104]

I did. He is now about 11.9 lbs and quite svelte. But it just goes to show that you cannot trust every kitten to self regulate when it comes to their food intake!

 

[GalaxyGirl]

I did. He is now about 11.9 lbs and quite svelte. But it just goes to show that you cannot trust every kitten to self regulate when it comes to their food intake!

Yes one of my 9 month old kittens is obsessed with food. I’m worried as she’s 2 pounds over her ideal. How old was your kitten that was 13 pounds?

 

[Pucks104]

About 8 months. I begin slowly modifying the amount of food I provided and he lost the excess weight. At 13 months he is a healthy weight and looks and behaves like a healthy cat. However, if I allowed him to have access to an unlimited supply of food I have no doubt he would balloon to an excess weight rapidly. He still doesn’t possess an off switch or I’m full signal where food is concerned.

 

[maggiedemi]

So do they each eat about 9oz of food per day? That's about how much Demi ate when he was a kitten. He was never overweight.