Am I Feeding Kitten Too Much Or Not Enough?

Cupcake_Luv

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I really don't think I'm feeding her too little she has quite the belly. Concerned I may be feeding her too much. I give her 1.32 oz of wet food 3 x a day and a total of 1 cup dry a day. She eats everrrything! Basically I feed her 3x a day wet. Breakfast lunch and dinner and leave dry food to snack on so her bowel is always full. At night I also leave dry in morning it is all gone, and I start with the wet food for breakfast again. So is this too much? What do you more experienced cat parents think?
 
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Cupcake_Luv

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She will be 14 weeks this Saturday.
 

Kieka

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Young kittens are pretty much eating machines, you really can't overfeed them. It won't be until she's at least six months that you should consider reducing access to food. Even then I usually don't until they are a year old unless they are getting super chubby (which isn't a round tummy but all over chunk).
 

ArchyCat

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Add more dry food to the daily rations until her bowl never goes empty in a 24 hour period. As Kieka Kieka and mightyboosh mightyboosh say, you cannot over feed a kitten. 1) they are growing at a very fast rate and 2) they are hyperactive. Both take a lot of calories and growrth also requires protein.
 
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Cupcake_Luv

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OK. Sounds like I'm feeding her right then. And yes! @ Archycat That's what I do. As soon as I notice bowel is empty I refill. So she has access day and night to food. Her belly just looks like it's going to pop. So I was concerned I may be overfeeding her, but sounds like all is good :thumbsup: thanks guys!
 

leechi

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I would recommend increasing the wet food at each meal instead of the dry. This will keep her hydrated, and wet tends to have more digestible protein than dry. A lot of grain free dry has protein coming from peas now (think hard split peas like in pea soup, not sweet), and other plant sources which aren't useful to a cat. Canned food can have fillers too, but usually a lower percentage since it doesn't need to be bound into pellets.
 
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Cupcake_Luv

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I was thinking the same on increasing the wet food throughout the day! :thanks:
 

maggiedemi

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I agree, I would increase the canned food instead of the dry. My cats have pee problems if they eat over half a cup of dry food. But maybe they are different than other cats, I don't know.
 

leechi

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I agree, I would increase the canned food instead of the dry. My cats have pee problems if they eat over half a cup of dry food. But maybe they are different than other cats, I don't know.
It’s definitely not just your cats. I gave my female cat just one meal of dry, and she had a partial blockage. She started peeing tiny amounts all over. On my shoes, on the bed, the rug, she tried the litter box too but must have started associating it with pain and straining. She also had blood in her urine. Poor thing, I got her well hydrated and she recovered fine and is perfect about using her litter box again.

Many cats eat nothing but dry and have no obvious symptoms, but that experience showed me just how dehydrating it is. I’ll feed a few pieces as a treat now and then, but never more than that.
 

sdkfjlasdf

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It’s definitely not just your cats. I gave my female cat just one meal of dry, and she had a partial blockage. She started peeing tiny amounts all over. On my shoes, on the bed, the rug, she tried the litter box too but must have started associating it with pain and straining. She also had blood in her urine. Poor thing, I got her well hydrated and she recovered fine and is perfect about using her litter box again.

Many cats eat nothing but dry and have no obvious symptoms, but that experience showed me just how dehydrating it is. I’ll feed a few pieces as a treat now and then, but never more than that.
!!! This. One period of time I gave just 1 3oz can and the rest was dry. The next few days she started smelling like pee and even peed very far from the litterbox. It smelled so bad (she was an early spay so it wasn't anything about that). It was very scary, the vet told me that female cats especially kittens tend to not have such problems with peeing but the truth is it really depends on the cat. Cats thrive on wet food imo.
 

maggiedemi

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Exactly! On half a cup of dry food, my cats start smelling like pee. Then the house starts smelling like pee. But if I keep it under half a cup, with the rest of their diet being canned food, they are fine. Thanks girls for sharing your experiences. Now I don't feel so alone. I hear about people free-feeding dry food all day long, but I just can't do it with my cats.
 
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