How much raw food should I feed my kitten?

[kpj]

Hi, I have a 4-mo old kitten and am currently transitioning him to homemade raw food (chicken). I am doing 50% canned wet food and 50% raw food at the moment. One thing I noticed is that he seems to prefer raw over canned (good news for me) because when I feed him raw and canned food side by side, he always goes for raw food first. But I also noticed he seems to eat less than what he used to eat when he was fed 100% canned food.

I guess it's not apple to apple comparison because he was fed mousse-type kitten food, which I think it is less dense than home made chicken. So I assume he would eat less in terms of volume - is this correct assumption?

Is there feeding guidance for raw food in terms of the amount per day (either by weight or by volume)? He's not a big eater, so I want to make sure he eats enough.

 

[LTS3]

Just feed your kitten as much food as he wants Canned, raw, dry, etc it doesn't matter. Growing kittens need a lot of food. If you find too much food goes uneaten, reduce the amount of food. You should still leave canned food out for snacking on since raw can't be left out at room temperature for hours.

 

[oliverwilson1987]

Just feed your kitten as much food as he wants Canned, raw, dry, etc it doesn't matter. Growing kittens need a lot of food. If you find too much food goes uneaten, reduce the amount of food. You should still leave canned food out for snacking on since raw can't be left out at room temperature for hours.

Hello! You said everything right. I would also add that the main thing is that the growing body has enough nutrients. So don't restrict the growing body.

 

[Talien]

Mousse (or anything else that's "fluffy") has quite a bit of air in it which adds empty volume, so yes it's normal that he's eating less of the raw than the mousse.

And yes, feed him as much as he will eat, Kittens grow fast and need all the nutrients they can get.

 

[everariana]

I've read multiple times that cats' body typically require less volume of raw food than canned food. So don't be alarmed if he's seemingly eating less. But as other people said, you should definitely feed him as much as he can eat and it should be at least 3 times a day. If you can't be around for the third meal that's midday or early evening, you can think about just feeding him canned food for that meal and leaving it out in a timed feeder with the cooler at the bottom. That worked for my kitties!

I've also seen some sites suggest starting out with the amount of food their supposed to eat at their projected adult weight. I'm not too sure if that's a universal rule but you can start there (Hare-Today has a raw feeding calculator) and adjust if he's not growing and/or losing weight.

 

[cataholic07]

Find the kitten as much as they want and make sure the raw food is completely balanced every meal. That's important. Ratio diets do not work for kittens.

 

[nwc]

all of it