Never Stop Eating!

[KitEKats4Eva!]

Gosh, it's been a very, very long time! I am an OLD member, and the last 13 years of my life have been involved with getting married, having kids, having dogs as well as cats - you name it! The two beautiful cats I had when I first joined TCS many years ago have left us now - the second girl (Sunday) only a couple of months ago at the age of 19 <3

So, naturally, we have two new kittens now :-D Both rescues, the first one is a champagne-coloured DMH called Lemonade. Shortly afterwards we adopted another kitty, whom we named Checkers. They are both male, and I have NEVER had male cats before - they are soo gorgeous! They were eight and sixteen weeks respectively when we adopted them.

Our vet tells us that he is certain Checkers has a large chunk of Oriental - he is long-legged, long-bodied, LONG-tailed, angular, affectionate and never, ever shuts up (which we love). He is 6.5 months old now and weighs more than my daughter did as a newborn - and she was 9lb! There is not an ounce of fat on him - he is just a big, big cat. And still a baby.

I don't know what it's like in the US but in Australia, large cans of cat food are very hard to come by - you can buy them in grocery stores but they are awful - rubbish, really - and I don't want to feed that to the kittens. But anything that is better quality comes in endless little tins and trays and sachets, very expensive not to mention all the landfill. Now, Checkers will eat up to six of those a day, as well as dry food (which is super premium but still doesn't fill him up). I also give him quite often cooked chicken breast, and chicken necks sometimes, too.

I wanted to make his food completely myself, as it is much cheaper, and keep the premium dry food in his diet to provide the taurine, vitamins and minerals etc. But honestly, that cat is ALWAYS hungry. Always. It's becoming madly expensive. Our large Golden Retriever does not eat as much as Checkers - it is quite literally adding up to hundreds of dollars to feed the cats.

My question is, how do we fill him up? He is clearly using the food and not getting fat, so I think he's genuinely very hungry. He is up to date with his worming and vaccination.

HELP!!! :-D

 

[tabbytom]

Gosh, it's been a very, very long time! I am an OLD member, and the last 13 years of my life have been involved with getting married, having kids, having dogs as well as cats - you name it! The two beautiful cats I had when I first joined TCS many years ago have left us now - the second girl (Sunday) only a couple of months ago at the age of 19 <3

So, naturally, we have two new kittens now :-D Both rescues, the first one is a champagne-coloured DMH called Lemonade. Shortly afterwards we adopted another kitty, whom we named Checkers. They are both male, and I have NEVER had male cats before - they are soo gorgeous! They were eight and sixteen weeks respectively when we adopted them.

Our vet tells us that he is certain Checkers has a large chunk of Oriental - he is long-legged, long-bodied, LONG-tailed, angular, affectionate and never, ever shuts up (which we love). He is 6.5 months old now and weighs more than my daughter did as a newborn - and she was 9lb! There is not an ounce of fat on him - he is just a big, big cat. And still a baby.

I don't know what it's like in the US but in Australia, large cans of cat food are very hard to come by - you can buy them in grocery stores but they are awful - rubbish, really - and I don't want to feed that to the kittens. But anything that is better quality comes in endless little tins and trays and sachets, very expensive not to mention all the landfill. Now, Checkers will eat up to six of those a day, as well as dry food (which is super premium but still doesn't fill him up). I also give him quite often cooked chicken breast, and chicken necks sometimes, too.

I wanted to make his food completely myself, as it is much cheaper, and keep the premium dry food in his diet to provide the taurine, vitamins and minerals etc. But honestly, that cat is ALWAYS hungry. Always. It's becoming madly expensive. Our large Golden Retriever does not eat as much as Checkers - it is quite literally adding up to hundreds of dollars to feed the cats.

My question is, how do we fill him up? He is clearly using the food and not getting fat, so I think he's genuinely very hungry. He is up to date with his worming and vaccination.

HELP!!! :-D

Hello there and welcome back to TCS from your busy life

Checkers is only 6.5 months old and is still very much a kitten and kittens eats needs proteins to grow and eats lots. He should be eating 4 - 5 times a day and give him the enough for each feed. Once they are full, they'll stop eating and that's the amount they eat each time +-.

Also they need enough calories a day to keep them going. He should be needing between 200 - 250 calories a day.

There's a recent discussion on food by a member from Australia. Not sure if it'll help you Feeding Wet Can Food

 

[KitEKats4Eva!]

Thanks for your reply.

I did think that it would probably be just because he's a growing kitten who is going to be VERY big! They are exclusively indoor cats, too, and they do get a lot of exercise and play time, but I thought they might eat a *little* bit less because of that

Mainly, I'd like some advice and suggestions about more filling food for him. He has super premium dry food and canned food, cooked chicken or other meat, and the occasional chicken necks. Anything else particularly filling I could give him?

 

[tabbytom]

The more they excercise the more they need to eat.

Wow! He has a buffet of food. My take for having him full is feed him solely on wet food, following the calories intake for each day and scheduled feeding. As for feeding him home cooked chicken and other meat may missed out on certain supplements he needs for his health. Most canned food comes with the needed supplements.

Since he's only 6.5 months old, he'll still eat lots. He'll only taper off when he's an adult. So feed him as much as he can eat at one sitting.

Here's a thread on counting calories Calculating Calories

And some articles on feeding a cat :-
The Essentials Of Kitten Nutrition
How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat?
Cat Nutrition - A Recap
What Do I Need To Know About Feeding My Cat?

 

[orange&white]

Those little kittens can put away the food can't they?

My kitten is about to be 9 months old in a few days, so I've had her for almost 5 months. I've tracked her food daily along with her weight weekly and figured weekly "average food". From 4-6 months, she definitely put away some food, eating 6-8% of her body weight those months (my 15 pound senior cat and 25 pound Corgi eat around 2% of their body weight). In terms of quantity of food, she peaked during her 6th month...which should be some good news for you. She still eats 3-4% of her weight at 8.5 pounds, and about 150% more than my senior kitty in volume.

A few more months, and I expect her to eat like an adult cat at 2-3% of her weight which won't be much at all as I expect her to top out around 10-11 pounds.

As far as budget, you'll have to feed the best you can afford. My furry loves eat pretty economically on an all home made diet, no processed foods.

Welcome back to TCS!

 

[destinyz12]

My younger cat is still a growing kitten at almost 8 months old, and for the past 2 months i've had him, he was ALWAYS super hungry and never seemed full (up until this past week where he's finally starting to eat a little less) and I discovered a way to get him more full is to feed a very high protein/high calorie food. I don't know about in Australia, but here in the U.S. we have a canned brand called Evo 95, which is 95% protein and very high in calories per can, and he couldn't even finish his serving when i fed it to him. I think there are some other brands that are also 95% protein but I don't remember which other ones.

 

[Vega's Dad]

My younger cat is still a growing kitten at almost 8 months old, and for the past 2 months i've had him, he was ALWAYS super hungry and never seemed full (up until this past week where he's finally starting to eat a little less) and I discovered a way to get him more full is to feed a very high protein/high calorie food. I don't know about in Australia, but here in the U.S. we have a canned brand called Evo 95, which is 95% protein and very high in calories per can, and he couldn't even finish his serving when i fed it to him. I think there are some other brands that are also 95% protein but I don't remember which other ones.

95% is a lot of protein!

 

[destinyz12]

Yes but perfectly healthy for growing kittens. There are quite a few other high quality/premium brands that also offer it including Nature's variety Instinct and Bravo.

 

[Vega's Dad]

Yes but perfectly healthy for growing kittens. There are quite a few other high quality/premium brands that also offer it including Nature's variety Instinct and Bravo.

OK. I remember I got some Nature's variety Instinct cans with "95%" before. I think what they meant was 95% of its protein is from animal but I could be wrong.

 

[Willowy]

Yes, even pure meat is only about 75% protein (dry matter basis). . .the foods that say 95% mean that the food is made of 95% meat and 5% other ingredients, that's not the protein percentage.

Ah, teenage boys! They sure do eat a lot, regardless of species. I'd probably go about half and half with the kibble and canned food, if all canned would be too expensive. He'll be eating a lot for the next 6 months or so, after that he should start tapering down.

 

[Gizmobius]

My kitten just reached 9 months and I have never been more relieved to have his ravenous appetite simmer down. What used to be feeding him wet food every four hours has now diminished to three meals a day. So there is hope!