Peak Food Consumption for Kittens

[orange&white]

I've never raised a kitten on a raw diet before now, and it's been about 24 years since I last adopted a kitten younger than 7 months.

My question is, "When is the peak period when kittens eat the highest percentage of their body weight?"  Is it 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, etc.

I'm not sure how old my kitten is, but the day I brought her home on February 3rd, she had her kitten canine teeth and tiny buds of adult canine teeth at the same time, so I guess-timated her at 4 months.  (Her kitten canines fell out sometime during the first week I had her.)  If my guess-timate is close, that makes her 6 months around April 1st.

I'm just curious whether I should prepare for her appetite to get even larger, or if I should expect it to level off now that she is around a half year old.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I'm not sure you're going to get an answer here in the nutrition forum.  Not really sure which forum would be best, but lots of it depends on what breed your little one is...some breeds don't mature for up to two years, whereas others mature in one (ish). 

Sorry I can't be of much help here.  Did you try asking your Vet for a general number?

 

[orange&white]

I think it really is a raw diet question.  Before this kitten, I free-fed kittens bottomless bowls of kibble, and I never tracked or really cared about what age their appetites were highest:  younger kittens, adolescents, or early adults.  They just ate all the kitten chow they wanted for a year, then ate bottomless adult food after that.

I'm letting this kitten eat all she wants, but unlike kibble, I can't just set out a pile of fresh raw food and let her nibble at will 24 hours.  I'm feeding her several small meals a day, weighing every meal since I bought a food scale a couple weeks ago, and charting her averages.

At almost 6 months old, she is averaging 2.5 lbs of food per week, between 4.5-7% of her body weight per day (avg 6.5%).

I'm mainly curious if other raw feeders tracked any food chart (or just general observation) with kittens.  She's leaving the really fast body growth period and will soon enter the crazy adolescent teenage cat "zoomie" months.  Wondering if I should expect her to go to, say 10-12% of her body weight as a zoomie "teenager", or if the young kitten growth phase is the highest period and she'll be levelling off from now through adulthood.

Just curious really...and overly-analytical in all ways.   If no one has an answer, I will answer my own question within 9 months...charted on a spreadsheet and everything. 

   I'm kind of geeky like that.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Geek on

 

[orange&white]

 
Geek on

LOL  Apparently I was born this way and don't have a choice. 

 

[petercotton]

Originally Posted by Orange&White  

At almost 6 months old, she is averaging 2.5 lbs of food per week, between 4.5-7% of her body weight per day (avg 6.5%).

I'm mainly curious if other raw feeders tracked any food chart (or just general observation) with kittens.  She's leaving the really fast body growth period and will soon enter the crazy adolescent teenage cat "zoomie" months.  Wondering if I should expect her to go to, say 10-12% of her body weight as a zoomie "teenager", or if the young kitten growth phase is the highest period and she'll be leveling off from now through adulthood.

My kitten will be turning 8 months in a couple of days.  She is on a raw diet and this is what I feed her: 3oz of ground raw in the morning and another 3oz at night (duck, venison, turkey, beef and so on).  So she is eating roughly the same amount as yours per week.  She also gets a snack in the afternoon and before bed of Stella & Chewy's freeze dried (about 10 pieces each time).  Some days she will eat and then be ready to eat again within an hour or two.  Other days she is content with just what I give her.  I am sure it will probably fluctuate like that for you as well.  As for my kitten, this past month and a half has been when she has eaten the largest amount of food. 

It will also depend on the protein source.  My kitten can eat duck all day long and seem to never be full, but it is low protein. The venison I give her is high protein so it seems she eats it slower and it keeps her fuller longer.  You could play around with what you feed her to keep her fuller longer. 

I am a first time cat owner, so take all I say as that of a newbie.

 

[orange&white]

That's the kind on information I'm interested in.  Just the experiences of people feeding raw to kittens.  Thank you.

I notice too that Farrell will have a huge appetite for two or three days, then not eat much for a day.  On pig-out days she seems to be bouncing of the walls playing and I hardly catch her napping.  On days she doesn't eat much she is more of a sleepy/nappy kitty.  I figure she may be having growing pains some days that impact her appetite.  Over a seven-day period, she's been right at 2.5 pounds of food since I started keeping track.

Different protein mixes do seem to make a difference, but Farrell eats less on a higher fat mix than on a leaner, higher protein mix.  More calories?  If I make all-chicken, I use all the skin so it's fattier than the next mix with boneless pork or beef.  She seems to eat more of the lower calorie pork or beef mixes...sort of the opposite of your kitty.  Duck is very fatty.  So that's interesting.

How much does your kitten weigh?  Farrell weighed in at 6.5 pounds Sunday.  I think she's going to be a small cat.  Her legs look shorter than the "average" cat, but she's starting to get a long-ish body.

 

[petercotton]

I just checked the fat content for the duck I feed because I keep seeing people say duck is high fat.  Surprisingly, the duck I feed (Blue Ridge Beef) is very low fat according to their website, 4.29%.  Other brands seems to be around 14%.  Might have to e-mail them about that.  Also, the other food she really likes by that brand, the kitten mix, is low fat also at 5.91%.  I am going to stock up on some more chubs of meat today.  Maybe I will get her some chicken to try.  It seems to be the fattiest meat they have at 16.33%.  Whew.  She has never had a raw chub of chicken, only freeze dried chicken by Stella & Chewy's which actually made her vomit and have diarrhea simultaneously.  They said it was probably just a bad batch of their food, so hopefully the chub of chicken does better.

Gracie, my kitten, seems to be like yours.  The days she eats a lot she is a lot much active.  Yesterday and this morning she has scarfed her food down at record pace and has been a non-stop ball of energy.  She is currently digging to China via her litter box.  When that stops I am sure she will be back to batting and carrying her toys all over the house.

I weighed her just a little while ago and she is 7.8lbs.  She has been that weight for a couple of weeks now.  She has pretty much kept to the 1lb a month expectation for kittens.  She is, however, a Maine Coon mix so who knows how big she will get or how long she will keep growing.

 

[orange&white]

Maine Coons are beautiful cats.

Sorry to hear about the results from the freeze-dried chicken.  I don't know what I would do if my cats couldn't tolerate chicken. All my mixes use 10% chicken bones for calcium/minerals then I rotate the boneless meats and type of liver for each batch.  I don't have a way to cut or grind pork, beef or other bones.  Hmmm.

Instead of the S&C chicken chub, maybe you should try buying a package of chicken thighs (or a whole chicken) at the grocery for yourself, and feed Gracie some strips of thigh meat with skin and small bone chunks to see if she has the vomiting/diarrhea.  At least you can eat the leftovers if chicken doesn't agree with her.    Sort of discouraging for Stella and Chewy to just write off Gracie's reaction as just a "bad batch"...if that's the case they should do a recall.  I suspect that freeze-drying just concentrates the ingredients and digests (or doesn't) differently from raw.

I'd love to hear more about Gracie.  It's been a long time since I adopted a younger kitten and I've never raised one on raw, so I'd like to compare notes as they grow.

 

[sophie1]

I didn't track food amounts as percentage of body weight with my two Siberians, but I can tell you amounts.  Note that Siberians take longer to mature than American shorthairs.  

age 3 months -  4 oz each

age 6 months (before neuter) - 5-6 oz each.  At this time they weighed around 8 lbs.

after neuter - 4 oz each

10-15 months - up to 8 oz each

age 1.5 years - 6 oz each

Now (age 4 years) - 4-5 oz each.  One weighs 12 lbs and is less active, the other 15 lbs and is more active.

These are averages/estimates, because they free-feed on their raw food (yes you can do this) and their consumption varies a lot.  This was a really good way to feed them, because otherwise it would have been nerve-wracking trying to get fixed amounts right during all these changes.   I noticed they tended to grow in spurts, and right before a spurt they'd eat a lot and put on weight, even looking a bit fat at a vet appointment.  Then a week or so later, I'd notice they'd grown bigger and had slimmed down (relatively speaking) again.   I think at 4 years they've finally stopped growing, although I'm told Siberians can continue to grow until age 5.

 

[orange&white]

Thank you, Sophie!  So it was the 10-15 month age that your kitties ate the most.  I may have to buy larger food storage boxes.  lol  I store cat food in the 24 oz Gladware plastic bins and a container lasts slightly more or slightly less than two days.

When I think of "free-feeding", I think of putting out 24 hours of food once a day and letting the cats graze.  That's not what you mean, is it?  My senior cat is on a diet, so he scarfs his 3 meals down in one or two minutes each and looks at me like he's starving, but he can't have any more.  I worry about raw food sitting out too long, and pick up Farrell's leftovers during the day after not longer than 30 minutes, but I usually put a couple ounces of food out for Farrell before bed just to make sure she's not still hungry.  Sometimes she hasn't eaten a piece or two the next morning...so that food has been out 6-7 hours while I was sleeping.  I guess I can trust her not to eat stale bad meat, but also hate wasting food.  I worry too much because I only have one year to "do it right" raising a kitten.  lol

That's also interesting about the growth spurts.  I have noticed thinking that Farrell has lost her baby fat, then a few days later, she looks a little rounder again.  Right now she getting longer in the body and is looking pretty lean.  I am very much enjoying raising a kitten again.  It's been a lot of years. 

 

[Willowy]

Not raw, but in my experience 9-12 months is the peak eating age :lol3:. It's hard to feed them enough when they're "teenagers". Especially boys.

 

[petercotton]

That's also interesting about the growth spurts.  I have noticed thinking that Farrell has lost her baby fat, then a few days later, she looks a little rounder again.  Right now she getting longer in the body and is looking pretty lean.  I am very much enjoying raising a kitten again.  It's been a lot of years. 

I am so glad you mentioned this.  Just the other day my girlfriend and I were watching Gracie play and I was like, "she looks bigger today, but not as pudgy looking."  Then a couple days later she was pudgy looking again. 

  Oh the struggles of being a growing cat.  Good thing they do not care about things like self-image.

So it sounds like the two of us still have the peak time of when our kittens will be eating the most.  Yikes.  I am very pleased that the best food option for cats, raw, is the best priced.  It is ridiculous how expensive good canned food is.  Raw is definitely the way to go. 

 

[orange&white]

 
I am so glad you mentioned this.  Just the other day my girlfriend and I were watching Gracie play and I was like, "she looks bigger today, but not as pudgy looking."  Then a couple days later she was pudgy looking again. 

  Oh the struggles of being a growing cat.  Good thing they do not care about things like self-image.

So it sounds like the two of us still have the peak time of when our kittens will be eating the most.  Yikes.  I am very pleased that the best food option for cats, raw, is the best priced.  It is ridiculous how expensive good canned food is.  Raw is definitely the way to go. 

I agree.  I can't afford the pre-mixes of raw or the more pricey meats like rabbit and duck, but making the food from scratch is very affordable.  This week, the area groceries have chicken thighs, legs, and breasts at $1.00/lb.  Pork roasts are on sale at $1.00/lb.  Beef roast is $2.99/lb.  I get liver/organs for regular price $1.39/lb and stripped chicken frames to add to boneless meats at .79/lb.  I can feed two cats and a 25 lb dog for $60-$75 per month.  Spending about an hour and a half chopping and packaging cat food every 10-12 days is a labor of love when you see the energy, vitality, glossy coats and clean teeth.

 

[orange&white]

Update on kitten eating habits:

So Farrell is turning into quite the eating machine.  Yesterday, she ate the most food ever at 7.5 ounces.  (Compare that to my 25 pound Corgi, who ate 8.2 ounces of food yesterday.)

I'm not sure her exact birthday, but I guessed Oct 1, which makes her 6 months old this weekend.  She was 4 pounds when I brought her home on Feb 3, and today she weighed in at 7 pounds.  Three pound weight gain in 60 days - she's growing really fast.

 

[sophie1]

 
I agree.  I can't afford the pre-mixes of raw or the more pricey meats like rabbit and duck, but making the food from scratch is very affordable.  This week, the area groceries have chicken thighs, legs, and breasts at $1.00/lb.  Pork roasts are on sale at $1.00/lb.  Beef roast is $2.99/lb.  I get liver/organs for regular price $1.39/lb and stripped chicken frames to add to boneless meats at .79/lb.  I can feed two cats and a 25 lb dog for $60-$75 per month.  Spending about an hour and a half chopping and packaging cat food every 10-12 days is a labor of love when you see the energy, vitality, glossy coats and clean teeth.

It sounds like you make some interesting food mixes from your grocery store finds...would you share them?

I like mixing proteins also, and my cats seem to prefer them to single protein foods.  The poultry meat/bone/organ grinds from Hare Today are an invitation to experiment, since they require a lot of added boneless meat to thin out the bone content.  I take advantage to add in meat chunks, cut up with scissors.  Their favorite is a mix of ground turkey and chicken boneless meats, but I've also used pork or venison to change things up a bit, and that was very well received - not to mention easier on me since they require less work with the scissors.

p.s. sounds like your kitten is at or near peak food consumption.  Just keep filling the bowl and watch all that goodness disappear.  Also take advantage of the opportunity to introduce them to lots of variety, since when they settle down they'll be much less receptive to new foods.

 

[orange&white]

 
It sounds like you make some interesting food mixes from your grocery store finds...would you share them?

 

[cindycrna]

I didn't track food amounts as percentage of body weight with my two Siberians, but I can tell you amounts.  Note that Siberians take longer to mature than American shorthairs.  





age 3 months -  4 oz each



age 6 months (before neuter) - 5-6 oz each.  At this time they weighed around 8 lbs.



after neuter - 4 oz each



10-15 months - up to 8 oz each



age 1.5 years - 6 oz each



Now (age 4 years) - 4-5 oz each.  One weighs 12 lbs and is less active, the other 15 lbs and is more active.





These are averages/estimates, because they free-feed on their raw food (yes you can do this) and their consumption varies a lot.  This was a really good way to feed them, because otherwise it would have been nerve-wracking trying to get fixed amounts right during all these changes.   I noticed they tended to grow in spurts, and right before a spurt they'd eat a lot and put on weight, even looking a bit fat at a vet appointment.  Then a week or so later, I'd notice they'd grown bigger and had slimmed down (relatively speaking) again.   I think at 4 years they've finally stopped growing, although I'm told Siberians can continue to grow until age 5.

I too would be interested how you free feed raw. I have an overweight one and a 6 month old. The overweight one is new to the house so I am hoping raw will turn him around.

 

[amysuen]

 

Any chance you'd share the spreadsheet? My head is spinning trying to decipher the figures... 

 

[orange&white]

I'm not sure the actually formulas will paste in here, but this is the most recent all-chicken mix I made yesterday.  I was using chicken thighs as the base, and cut the thigh bones out with a little meat before I weighed them, so they were 95% bone.  The 95% and 7.5 ounces are the two numbers I entered.  The batch made just under 4.5 pounds of food, before I added supplements...about 6 days of food for the senior cat and the kitten.

The top line, RMB, provides the Total ounces of food, and the rest of the "recipe" calculates the correct %-ages from that.  So the bones, plus 3.5 pounds of boneless meat (can be a mix of proteins, includes hearts), 3.5 ounces of liver, and 3.5 ounces of other organs.

THIGH BONE CUT OUT BEFORE WEIGHING
		% bone	Ounces of RMB	Oz of bone	Meat on RMB	Total ounces of food	Ounces of other meats/organs	Lbs
RMB	Ratio	95.00%	7.5	7.125	0.375	71.25	0.375	0.0234375
Boneless meat	80.00%						56.625	3.5390625
Bone	10.00%						7.125
Liver	5.00%						3.5625
Other Organ	5.00%						3.5625	pounds
						sum	71.25	4.453125