Kittens eat so much...

Sonatine

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Dang, this little guy is only around 12 weeks but he can really put it away. Right now he's stuffing his tiny little mouth on friskies shreds 4 times a day. I know it's not the best food, but I can afford it and he likes it and I figure that the most important thing is that he's eating something. I'll have my PharmD in less than a year, and after that I'll be able to afford much better food so this is temporary.

I tried to get him to accept some dry (I think I got some purina kitten formula) but he wasn't interested in trying it. Also, I have two adult gluttons who will eat anything and everything if I take my eyes off of them for even a second, so the only way to leave food out for him to graze on is to separate them completely. The adults get either friskies or fancy feast pates, with occasional interjections of better brands when I can afford it.

I guess I'm mostly just looking for sympathizers on enormous kitten appetites, and maybe other suggestions of cheap canned (or particularly irresistible dry) foods to get me and my poor hurting wallet through the year until I have a better job!
 

amethyst

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Have you tried pate instead of shreds? you get more per can gravy tends to just be tasty empty calories that don't fill up the kitten. Also when I switch kittens over to dry I soak and mix it into the wet food, if it works for you it can help stretch the cans out a bit more, giving you maybe 2 servings per can. For dry I'm currently using Nutrisource (in addtion to friskies pate), it's for cats and kittens and not a bad brand but also not as hard on the wallet as other good quality foods. I think it's about $50 for a 16lb bag, but I'm in Canada so it may be different priced elsewhere.
 

kittenmittens84

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Seconding the suggestion to try pate instead of shreds in gravy, you’re getting more food for your money.
 

heyitskevinn

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Add water to all wet food. Healther---- WAY healthier, reducing the chances of kidney disease and all of those pee problems, plus, fills you up better on top of that, slowing down eating. Don't add so much that he vomits, and you might want to split them into smaller, separated meals if that happens.
 
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Sonatine

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Water+pate is what I do for the older ones, for the exact reasons listed above.

This guy though... he's decided that shreds are his thing. He'll take a couple bites of the pate, then try to bury it. I can get him to take a little if I mix plenty of the stuff he likes in, though. I guess I'll just have to convince him to eat it gradually.

I'd gotten spoiled by my other two cats, who will eat pretty much anything with great enthusiasm.
 

Furballsmom

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Considering the incredible growth of everything, brain, eyes, muscles, nervous system, bones, digestive system, ...that's going on, he needs all the calories and more importantly the nutrients he can get.

How Old Is My Kitten? [An Illustrated Guide]

The Essentials Of Kitten Nutrition -this article doesn't really provide anything new for you, it just confirms what you're doing regarding multiple meals throughout the day :)
 

cataholic07

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Stay away from Friskies and non classic fancy feast. Those brands are very low quality to be honest. I'd honestly would look at brands that have large cans, you get more bang for your buck. :) Nulo, Performatrin, etc. First mate and Kasiks are the cheapest but best lower quality food. Some places you can get 5% off for a case so you save money buying bulk.:) Its great when you have cats who arent picky, you can buy the better food on sale and just have on hand in stock. Thats what I do. You can also look into DIY raw, its time consuming yes and recipes are required but lots of people save money and say its cheaper the even just dry. My cats are raw fed but they seem to be fuller faster on it.
 
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Sonatine

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I like Nulo. But I can't afford feeding it regularly. I would know, I've fed it before but couldn't keep up, especially because one of my adults has a big appetite. That's the unfortunate reality. And time consuming isn't great either for a graduate student doing full time rotations (it's really something: I work full time, for free, while paying 3 semesters of tuition). When I feed fancy feast though, I do feed the classic. Still working on getting the kitten to accept pate textured foods, though.

Like I said, feeding the cheaper foods is going to be temporary. After around 10-12 months I'll have my degree and have more options. But until then, I've got to do the best I can with what I've got (the cats aren't the only ones eating lower quality food these days!).
 

AshwinR

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Cats tend to eat way more of cheap food as it takes a lot to make them feel full. in 1 a year if you have more finances, I would recomend Orijen, but only if it come from the Canadian Factory.
 
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Sonatine

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Cats tend to eat way more of cheap food as it takes a lot to make them feel full. in 1 a year if you have more finances, I would recomend Orijen, but only if it come from the Canadian Factory.
Yeah, once I'm not a student any more I'll have a lot more options. I hear good things about orijen and tiki cat. They'll get to try so many foods. It'll be great. They're gonna be so spoiled. I feed the two adults set amounts based on the calorie content and their ideal weights, so they're generally not allowed to binge on the cheap food even if they want to (one of them is unfortunately just a really big cat with a high metabolism, though, so she just eats a lot in general). The kitten, however, gets as much as he wants around 4, maybe 5 times daily. And he shovels it in. At least better food is in their future.

... for now, getting a couple cans of Nulo or American Journey counts as a splurge.
 
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