Kitten Eating Me Out Of House And Home

[weemomma]

My kitten is about 4 months old. He is super active and is a food hound. He was a street rescue, so he is most definitely a scavenger.

He is constantly hungry. He is on kitten food right now, about 1 1/2 cups per day. He also gets wet food for good measure. IT IS NOT ENOUGH!

He is going to be a big cat. He has long legs and big paws. He's already around 6.5 lbs.

What can I do to help him with his constant hunger? Or even to break him of his scavenger ways?

 

[tabbytom]

A kitten at 4 month is still in the early stage of growing up. They need to be fed 4 - 5 times a day and be fed as much wet food as they can eat at one go. Wet food is proteins and they need proteins to grow.

Eating like a food hound is normal especially if he's a rescue off the streets as they are deprived of food and scavenging is the way to keep themself fed and they have to compete with other cats and thus this behavior.

My boy is also a rescue off the streets and he wolf down his food when I first brought him home. He was afraid that they'll be no food or not enough food and he are lots. After awhile and sensing that there's no competition and there's always food for him, he slowed down his speed at eating with coaxing by telling him to eat slowly. Eventually he was eating normally.

Just give him some time to overcome this he'll be able to eat slowly but give him as much as he can eat as you can't over feed a kitten. The food intake will taper down as they reach adulthood.

 

[weemomma]

I have noticed that the cheaper the food, the worse his gas is. I treated him for intestinal parasites, but I wonder if he doesn't have something else like giardia. He most definitely ate out of trashcans for a while!

 

[tabbytom]

Yea, cheap food are mostly junk and fillers in food makes the poop even stinkier. Sometimes the gas smell is from the anal glands, which is stinky too

Get him dewormed too and have his vaccinations up to date.

Glad that you rescued him

 

[LTS3]

Cheap foods are often filled with fillers that are undigestible. That can cause gassiness and a super stinky litter box.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I call those super stinky litter boxes, "CDUs" (Crowd Dispersal Units).

 

[maggiedemi]

Wow, that's a lot of dry food! Can you up his wet food a little and cut back on the dry food?

 

[tabbytom]

I call those super stinky litter boxes, "CDUs" (Crowd Dispersal Units).

 

[weemomma]

Thanks! I've had him for almost a month now! He has his first round of vaccines on board and he'll be going in for his neuter and second round of vaccines this month.

I could cut back on his dry food. I free feed with my other cats, so I would like to get him used to the idea as well. I feed him a big can of food in the morning and a big can of food at night with a smaller half of a can just before bed. He eats it all!

 

[tabbytom]

Yes, thank you for taking care of him!

 

[maggiedemi]

Wow, that's a lot of food. My cats have never eaten more than 9oz of food. Is he a Maine Coon?

 

[weemomma]

No, he's an orange tabby. He's the second orange tabby male that I've had. My first died three years ago and he was around 18 lbs. I have the suspicion that Charlie is going to be a big bruiser as well.

 

[lisahe]

The wet food might help Charlie feel more satiated, too: the water helps with that, plus there's lots of good protein in wet food, for growth. And, yes, more wet food might well help limit the stinky gas! If the gas doesn't start abating, you might want to keep notes on what you feed him and how bad the smells are: some cats can get gassy from certain ingredients. (One of ours vomited and got nasty gas from foods with potato...)

What tabbytom wrote about strays is good advice, too: with time, Charlie may feel more secure about his food situation and slow his eating a little. Or he might not: our cat with the potato sensitivity has been with us for nearly four years and still eats too fast (and would eat too much if we didn't limit her) after a very thin kittenhood.

Good for you for taking Charlie in, W weemomma ! Good luck with the feeding.

 

[kashmir64]

I know what you mean. My kitten just turned 5 months and has topped just over 7 lbs. But, other forum members have suggested that she has a Siberian influence. Just because yours is orange doesn't mean he doesn't have a giant breed in him somewhere. Mine gets around 3/4 cup of dry and 4 cans of wet a day. That is split between two though. Yours being only 4 months, he's probably going through a growth spurt.

BTW, if he had Giardia it would be a yellow diarrhea. And it smells nasty. I don't mean just a strong odor, I mean nose violating, awful nasty.

Edit: I must be more tired than I thought. I swore I read that you were concerned about Giardia, but now I can't find that in your post. Wow.
(maybe I just need more coffee...and a cookie)

 

[EggSandwich]

Wow, that's a lot of food. My cats have never eaten more than 9oz of food. Is he a Maine Coon?

I think my Cinnamon has a lot of Maine coon in her. She is maybe 10.5 weeks and 3.9 lbs. Her paws are bigger than her muzzle, too.

And of course, she's fluffy.

 

[Willowy]

Teenage boys eat a lot, regardless of species! Hang in there, he'll grow out of it (in a year or so. . .).

 

[Gizmobius]

I've had Gizmo since he was nearly 3 months and he has cost me a fortune when it comes to food! He only ate wet food so it was massively expensive but he's now two weeks away from being a year old so he's slowed down significantly with his appetite. At around 9-10 months is when he first started to slow down. The last time I weighed him, he was a bit over 12lbs.

So hang in there and feed your boy as much as he can eat so he can grow big and strong and eventually he won't cost you so much in food expenses!

 

[irenechennia]

I think it is a good thing that he can eat, you should allow him to indulge. However, if you notice any abnormally then maybe you can escalate.

 

[destinyz12]

I was going to suggest increasing wet food and decreasing dry food but it sounds like he already eats a tremendous amount of wet food! I have an orange tabby who is 10 months old and i've had him since he was 5 months but I don't think he even ate half that much when he was younger. Now that his appetite has slowed down, he is eating 4.5 oz of wet food with 1/4th of a cup of dry food split into small meals throughout the day and he seems satisfied with that. Occasionally he is still hungry and begs for more so I will give a little more. For some reason, orange tabbies are commonly known for having gigantic appetites compared to other cats. And go figure, Garfield the cat is an orange tabby, lol.

 

[riley1]

A kitten at 4 month is still in the early stage of growing up. They need to be fed 4 - 5 times a day and be fed as much wet food as they can eat at one go. Wet food is proteins and they need proteins to grow.

Eating like a food hound is normal especially if he's a rescue off the streets as they are deprived of food and scavenging is the way to keep themself fed and they have to compete with other cats and thus this behavior.

My boy is also a rescue off the streets and he wolf down his food when I first brought him home. He was afraid that they'll be no food or not enough food and he are lots. After awhile and sensing that there's no competition and there's always food for him, he slowed down his speed at eating with coaxing by telling him to eat slowly. Eventually he was eating normally.

Just give him some time to overcome this he'll be able to eat slowly but give him as much as he can eat as you can't over feed a kitten. The food intake will taper down as they reach adulthood.

I agree entirely! My little girl was starved and still thinks she never has enough. But it does slow down as they age. At age 1 plus she was getting 6 oz of raw food. At age 2 plus I had to cut that down to 4 oz to prevent weight gain.