Help with figuring calorie content for kitten

dumpling

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Hi, everyone!

One of our kittens, around 9 weeks old now and 1lb 10oz in weight, is struggling to enjoy harder food with his sister. Due to this, we’ve taken up grabbing him a bisque wet food we trust. He still eats hard food and very occasionally actualwet food, but we want to ensure he’s getting enough calories as he’s had slower growth compared to others we’ve had.

The bisque we have is confusing us with how it describes calories, and we haven’t been able to find any proper articles, so I’m trying here to see if anyone has figured this out.

Food description:
“Calorie Content”: 540 kcal ME/kg (calculated)
“Calories Per Pack”: 22 kcal ME/40g

We’ve been assuming it’s the lower number as this is typically a more supplement type food, but want to make sure we don’t under nor over feed him.

thank you!
 

sivyaleah

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Yes, it's 22 calories in each packet.
Kittens should always eat as much as they want hence why most always keep kibble available. Perhaps you can swap whatever you are using now for a more nutrient dense kibble. The calorie counts on dry cat food vary wildly from one brand to another. For instance, the Orijens has well over 500 calories a cup. I mix that with a rabbit kibble that I had her on while doing a food trial and she just happens to love it so I still feed it to her, is only around 350 calories a cup. Huge difference.
You really can't overfeed a kitten. They burn up everything they eat and then some at times but underfeeding is a problem for their optimal growth and overall health.
 

LTS3

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Calorie intake doesn't apply to growing kittens. You just feed kittens as much food as they will eat. Kittens eat a ton of food which they need in order to grow. Worry about calories when the kitten reaches a year old or so. Then feed roughly 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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And if that food you are feeding is technically a supplemental food, that isn't sufficient. Not 100% nutritionally complete, especially for a growing kitten. If he's in love with it, use it as a topper. You can mix it with dry food if you want, or wet food too. But he needs to eat something in addition to it, true cat food that is nutritionally complete.
 
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dumpling

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Calorie intake doesn't apply to growing kittens. You just feed kittens as much food as they will eat. Kittens eat a ton of food which they need in order to grow. Worry about calories when the kitten reaches a year old or so. Then feed roughly 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily.
Thank you for the advice. The only reason we were concerned with calories is due to his picky eating, even with several different foods we’ve tried that all of our others love, and the fact that he hasn’t had steady weight gain either.

He’s eaten quite a bit of a new food we got him earlier that is more dense in calories and we’re just pouring a little of the bisque on it so he’ll be more inclined to graze. (:
 
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dumpling

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And if that food you are feeding is technically a supplemental food, that isn't sufficient. Not 100% nutritionally complete, especially for a growing kitten. If he's in love with it, use it as a topper. You can mix it with dry food if you want, or wet food too. But he needs to eat something in addition to it, true cat food that is nutritionally complete.
That’s what we’ve been doing, we give 1-3 teaspoons worth a day either on its own if he avoids hard food in that moment (he’s very good at letting us know what he wants surprisingly, and does still eat hard food typically just later) or paired with hard food, if he even needs any of it (he still eats hard food as I said earlier and his intake simply varies day to day).
 
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